LET’S count the occasions in Canadian history when the provinces have achieved complete agreement on an issue of national importance.
That didn’t take long, did it?
Small wonder then, that two years into the provincial debate over distribution of safety net dollars, the issue remains unresolved.
There are deep divisions between provinces that favor a risk-based formula, as the prairie provinces do, and those that favor payouts based on relative size of the farm economy, as seven other provinces do.
There is no consensus in sight but in the meantime farmers continue the risky high-wire act of farming with an inadequate safety net below them. We know some will tumble into the abyss, and the number will depend on how quickly a new net can be strung.
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It is time for leadership, and that’s where the federal government gets into the act. It has a responsibility to end provincial bickering and impose a solution before the next growing season and before there are more farm casualties.
Dollar distribution is only part of the program. The new national agricultural safety net must also acknowledge the need to support Canadian farmers to the same degree that our trading partners support their farmers.
The government claims that international trade rules and lack of money prevent it from providing the same level of agricultural support received by farmers in the United States or the European Union. If it plans to make this claim again, it will have to explain why our trading partners can subsidize farmers without trade repercussions.
And it must either prove that Canada gives the same per capita support to farmers as the U.S. and the EU, or explain why it can’t.
It was welcome news last week when federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief set a February deadline for resolution of the dollar distribution issue. Even more welcome were hints that he favors a risk-based strategy despite pressure to the contrary.
The minister spoke candidly in this newspaper last week. He suggested not all farmers will be able to continue operations in this economy.
The only real surprise in those words was the source. Seldom does an agriculture minister encourage farmers to think about other careers. That Vanclief did so shows he has few illusions about the relative success of existing farm policy.
Yes, it is clear by now that the farm income crisis will claim casualties.
The sooner we have a national safety net, the sooner farmers can gauge the level of support that will be available. And the sooner they can plan for their futures within – or without – the agricultural industry.
Terry Fries, Barb Glen, Allan Laughland, D’Arce McMillan and Elaine Shein collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
