When the new agriculture minister arrives for the first day on the job, he or she will find a backlog of work that has accumulated over the past two months.
Negotiations with provinces over agreements to implement last summer’s Growing Forward agreement must be restarted and completed.
Worries about the health of the country’s farm safety net system in light of falling commodity prices and high input costs will have to be addressed.
Progress, if any, at World Trade Organization talks since they collapsed in July will have to be assessed.
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The minister will also have to try to explain to puzzled bureaucrats and farm leaders what the Conservatives were promising with their $500 million, four-year promise of an “agricultural flexibility program” that will help fund regionally designed programs.
Details about what programs would qualify have not been available.
Then there will be the clamour of those same farm leaders offering advice and trying to get a read on what the government plans.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture vice-president Ron Bonnett said the farm economy must be the first issue addressed.
“The evolving economic volatility with unstable prices and high input costs is of primary importance,” he said. “How does the government build stability and profitability in the sector?”
Grain Growers of Canada president Ross Ravelli from Dawson Creek, B.C., said members of his national organization will be pressing the government to act quickly on its promise to end the Canadian Wheat Board barley single desk and to continue aggressive support for the biofuel industry.
But he, too, said economic conditions will be a key issue.
“I think the government will need to put a real magnifying glass on the safety nets issue to see if they are adequate,” he said. “Commodity prices are falling but input prices are not, or at least not as much. And I know in some sectors, producers are worried that their margins are small or nonexistent. Will those programs work for them?”
National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells said the re-elected government that has been so willing lately to help banks retain liquidity should also consider the issue of farmer liquidity and debt.
“This is an issue that we will be raising over the next few months as an issue that really hasn’t seen enough attention,” he said.
Wells noted that Canadian farmers have added more than $20 billion in new debt over the past decade.
He also said the organization expects the fight over ending the CWB single desk will be on again.
