The fate of a federal government report that calls for a radical shift in the approach to solving farm income problems could hinge on the outcome of the election.
The report by Liberal MP Wayne Easter identified what it considered the root cause of the decades-long decline in farm income as market power.
Agri-business corporations have it, said the report; farmers don’t.
The report goes on to prescribe a series of policies the federal government could introduce to address that imbalance.
Several farm leaders say they hope the election doesn’t result in the Easter report becoming a dust collector on library shelves across the country, no matter who forms the next government.
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“I think it has tremendous potential,” said Ken McBride, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“We need to use it as a blueprint for moving this industry forward.”
Rod Scarlett, executive director of Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said the report was a “refreshing change” from the kind of material usually produced by government studies.
The report raises issues and makes suggestions that merit serious investigation and discussion by the agricultural industry in the coming months, he said.
“The report really tried to examine with some degree of openness ideas that hadn’t been discussed a whole bunch because maybe they had been thought of in many respects as being too radical,” he said.
At the same time, Scarlett cautioned that some of the report’s ideas are so contentious they would be difficult to implement without extensive consultation with all stakeholders.
The report, prepared after months of consultations with farm organizations, said the Canadian government should take the lead in an international effort to control corporate market influence and increase farmer power and market returns.
It presented a long list of recommendations for specific policy changes: more government investment in meat packing; increased support for farmer co-operatives; funding for community-based land banks and trusts to help in land transfers; increased emphasis on rural development; creation of a farmer-controlled export company; changes to income and estate taxes; and more power for the federal Competition Bureau to protect farmers’ interests.
Stewart Wells, president of the National Farmers Union, said the Easter report represents a significant departure from the notion popular among governments since the late 1960s that farmers are the problem, not the solution.
He said the report correctly concludes that farmers are in fact one of the most efficient and best-managed links in the food industry and are victimized by an unfair imbalance of power.
“We are going to do everything in our power to make sure this report doesn’t get shelved and gather dust, and the outcome of the election is obviously key to what happens to it,” he said.
For his part, Easter said he expects the report to be reflected in the Liberal agriculture platform.
He also said there is a “fairly strong possibility” that a re-elected Liberal government would implement quite a few of the report’s 46 recommendations.
He said the report’s main contribution is in bringing a new focus to the issue of corporate power and its effect on returns at the farmgate and the rural economy.
“I think it clearly outlines that the farm income problem does not have its genesis at the farm,” he said, noting that a wide variety of farm groups with often divergent views have endorsed the report’s approach.
Diane Finley, an MP from southern Ontario and the Conservatives’ agriculture critic, suggested that a Tory government might bring in policies that reflect some aspects of the Easter report.
She said many of the ideas in the report reflect what the Conservatives have been calling for, including support for rural co-ops, reductions in regulatory costs, increased consultation with primary producers and rural support programs such as day care for farm families.
As for the issue of corporate power, Finley said there’s no question farm processors and suppliers are making good money and said a Conservative government would take steps to ensure farmers also make a fair return.
She also expressed skepticism about whether a new Liberal government would implement the Easter report.
“They have a track record of not
following through on their own reports and recommendations.”
