It’s unclear how much Arthur Kroeger’s recommendations are going to cost farmers in the long run, but the process has already plucked money from the pockets of a small group of producers.
Those farmers who participated on Kroeger’s steering committee and working groups were reimbursed for their expenses (including hotel, airfare and meals) and were paid $200 per day for time spent in meetings. But that doesn’t cover losses back on the farm, they say.
“It was an expensive process for producers to take part in,” said Don Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s general farm lobby.
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“Most people were doing their jobs when they were attending those meetings. We as producers were away from our jobs.”
Jim Robbins represented the National Farmers Union on Kroeger’s commercial relations working group. Despite the $200 per diem, Robbins is certain he experienced a net loss.
He said the timing of the process, which ran from late May to mid-September, couldn’t have been worse. It postponed both seeding and harvest on his farm near Delisle, Sask.
Robbins doesn’t have a final total for his expenses, but each return flight from Saskatoon to Winnipeg cost $846. Additional expenses included food and hotel rooms. He only attended 12 of the 15 working group meetings because the NFU dropped out of the Kroeger process at the end of August, before its completion.
Each trip to Winnipeg meant two days away from the farm. He paid his nephew to run the operation while he was gone and relied on his son and daughter during July and August.
“They’re good help, but they’re not fix-it people and they’re not decision-making people either.”
Able to harvest
Because he dropped out early, Robbins didn’t have much difficulty getting the crop off, although due to late seeding his yields were lower than his neighbor’s yields. But he considers himself fortunate.
“It’s very difficult in farming to park your combine in good weather and go and do committee work and undoubtedly farmers did that. I don’t happen to be one of them.”
Jim Hallick was.
He stuck with the process until the end, representing the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities on the same working group as Robbins.
“We were just basically getting (harvest) started when it ended in our area.”
Luckily his farm wasn’t hit by rain.
The Sturgis, Sask., farmer said “the timing was terrible. It started in seeding and ended in harvest which couldn’t have been worse for western Canadian farmers.”
Officials with Transport Canada said expense claims for the process are still coming in but they estimate the final cost for the four-month process, which will include things like producer reimbursements and Kroeger’s salary, will be around $800,000.
Robbins figures the costs incurred by taxpayers and by himself were a small sacrifice to have producer representation on the working groups.
“They’re about to change our world and I think you have to participate.”
