Safety net spending must be distributed on the basis of need, rather than divided according to a formula based on the size of provincial farm economies, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said last week.
He was commenting about the safety net dispute that has pitted Saskatchewan and Manitoba against the rest of the country.
Led by Ontario and British Columbia, the so-called “gang of seven” provinces have argued that the existing safety net funding distribution is too weighted to risk, which favors the export-dependent Prairies over economies geared to more stable domestic markets.
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Vanclief said in light of new farm income projections that show Saskatchewan and Manitoba to be hardest hit in the next few years, distribution of support dollars based on anything other than need does not make sense.
“I understand what a number of provinces are saying,” said the federal minister. “I don’t think they are saying we want our money based on farm cash receipts and to hell with everyone else. They are too Canadian to say that.”
But the divide between the two sides in the regional safety net dispute grew last week.
After Vanclief announced July 19 that Ottawa will pay 60 percent of a $50-per-acre payment on unseeded acres in the prairie flood area, Ontario farm groups complained that it simply increased the inequity in aid spending.
Ontario’s wheat, soybean and corn lobbies issued a statement sympathizing with flooded prairie farmers but complaining about the implications of the federal decision.
Ottawa has not been as generous in sending funds to Ontario’s Market Revenue Insurance program, which is aimed at helping farmers cope with depressed corn, soybean and wheat prices, they complained.
Yet Ontario has Canada’s largest farm economy.
For every $100 of food production in Ontario, Ottawa contributes $2.80, they said. In Saskatchewan, the federal contribution is $22.50 and in Manitoba, it is $15.80.
“Although Ontario grows more and exports more agri-food products than any other province, this is not reflected in federal agri-food investment and this imbalance needs to be corrected while assuring that adequate farm income support programs exist in all provinces,” said Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board chair Ken Nixon.
Ontario Corn Producers’ Association president Anna Bragg said that unless Ottawa starts to put more money into Ontario, “the unrest from Western Canada will soon spread to this province too.”
But one senior western agriculture bureaucrat said the income projections punch a hole in the argument that more safety net money should flow outside the Prairies.
“These numbers demonstrate the vulnerability of the prairie farm economy while other economies are stronger,” said Saskatchewan Agriculture official Hal Cushon.
“It is hard to see from these numbers why those other provinces should be getting more money.”
And Reform party agriculture spokesperson Howard Hilstrom joined the fray by supporting the Saskat-chewan and Manitoba argument.
The Manitoba MP said safety net dollars should not be redirected to other provinces unless Quebec and Ontario are willing to transfer more supply management quota to the Prairies.
“Farmers in supply managed sectors face less risk and receive increased income because of government regulations,” Hilstrom said. The prairie provinces deserve support in their argument against losing safety net dollars “as long as (the others are) unwilling to share their valuable supply managed quotas.”
