If the provinces cannot work out their differences over new safety net rules by March, Ottawa will announce its own plans for a new national system, agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said last week.
But he said that would not be in farmers’ interests, since it likely would not include matching provincial dollars.
“All I know is if it is left to the federal government alone, farmers will not be as well served as if the provinces are there,” Vanclief said. “And I repeat, it is a joint jurisdiction.”
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However, he said Ottawa will act even if the provinces do not because farmers need to know the shape of their long-term protection program.
“Yes, there will be a federal program but the size of it is what’s unknown. It may not be able to be of appreciable size to be very meaningful to the producers, nowhere near as meaningful to the producers as if the provinces were there.”
Vanclief said he was not trying to threaten the provinces and he hoped the interprovincial disagreements over whether the new safety net system should be based on risk or provincial cash receipts can be worked out.
He has called a Jan. 11 federal-provincial ministers’ meeting to keep working on it.
“I want to be optimistic and think that the provinces are going to come to some agreement on settling this by March,” said Vanclief.
The minister was critical of Saskatchewan and Ontario for what he said was their tactic of insisting they would not negotiate a new long-term agreement unless they win a concession up front.
And Ontario insists the new formula must divide money based on provincial farm cash receipts, which would send more money to Ontario and six other provinces while reducing the share going to Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In Saskatchewan’s case, it is a demand that Ottawa come up with $1 billion in “trade adjustment” money.
“When I was speaking to (Saskatchewan agriculture minister Dwain) Lingenfelter, I said if Saskatchewan is not going to talk about anything unless there’s a billion dollars on the table beforehand, the discussion is over. If other provinces say unless we go straight to farm cash receipts tomorrow…then the discussion is over as well.”
Once again, Vanclief showed more sympathy for the prairie view that safety nets should send money where the need and risk are, than for the Ontario view that provinces with proportionately larger farm sectors should get more of the money.
“It would be like a farmer complaining because he never collected crop insurance,” said Vanclief. “He always paid premiums and never collected crop insurance. I think that is wonderful.”
