Conservative leader Stephen Harper says the federal government should be prepared to strengthen farm safety nets by committing more money to cover disasters and unfair international trade disruption or subsidy competition.
Heading into a year that will see the Conservative party’s first policy convention in March and the possibility of an election because of a minority Parliament, Harper said his party believes farm safety nets must be revamped.
“The discussions have only been preliminary, but in the case of international subsidy wars, there has to be more explicit aggressive participation by our government to help producers in those kinds of situations,” Harper said in a Dec. 15 interview.
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Even as farm groups insist that an annual $1.2 billion impact on grain sector revenues should be recognized by the federal government, Ottawa insists it will not compensate for trade injury because of the wide implications of sectors that are trade-affected.
Harper said the Liberals sing a different tune when it is Quebec-based Bombardier and the aerospace sector that faces problems from unfair competition. He said the Conservative party continues to support World Trade Organization negotiations to reduce or get rid of trade-distorting policies and subsidies.
“But I don’t think we can just stand still and wait for that,” said Harper. “I think we’ve got to get specific actions to try to get the American market open (to live cattle) and deeper integration of Canadian and American agriculture, but at the same time, we have to be prepared to participate to some degree in this subsidy battle.”
Harper said his party will be proposing changes to the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program to make it more responsive to farm needs. And it will insist on a more aggressive government response to farm income disasters.
“There has to be stronger and more proactive government response to disaster, whether it is natural or trade-induced disasters like BSE,” said the Conservative leader and Calgary MP. “There have to be policies developed for that and they cannot be delivered, as this government is trying to do, through CAIS, a program that was not designed for that.”
Harper said that as farmers look at the present political alignment, only the Conservatives represent their interests and understand their problems. Except in Atlantic Canada, Liberals represent few rural ridings.
“Not only does the Liberal party not represent rural Canada, it increasingly does not understand it,” he said. “This government doesn’t understand agriculture and rural Canada, doesn’t represent it and increasingly doesn’t care. It isn’t on their horizon.”
Harper said governments must deal differently with threats to rural economies than to challenges to industries in urban areas. In urban or industrialized areas, there are usually employment alternatives.
