Agriculture ministers will meet Dec. 4 to discuss provincial and
industry complaints about a lack of progress in designing new safety
nets and the meeting promises to be tense and fiery.
More than five months after the agriculture policy framework was signed
in Halifax to take effect April 1, 2003, farm groups and some provinces
have complained that too little progress has been made to allow
implementation to happen. They want an extension of existing programs
for one year.
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On Nov. 18, federal minister Lyle Vanclief ruled out any possibility of
a program extension for existing rules past March 31, 2003.
Ontario agriculture minister Helen Johns said in an interview she
supports an extension because farm groups are worried.
“We signed this thing in July, we still haven’t seen any paper from the
federal government and farm groups have asked for a lot of data about
how this would work and they haven’t received that either,” she said.
“It’s embarrassing for all of us that we have made so little progress.”
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby, who has not signed on,
does not support extension.
“I would be on his side. I would support Mr. Vanclief in a major way,”
he said in Regina. “But a lot of work would have to happen in a hurry
to get there.”
Serby said it is not just provinces that have not signed the new
national agriculture agreement that are questioning progress. Provinces
that signed, including Ontario and Alberta, also have questions about
what a national safety net program should look like.
Vanclief called the federal-provincial meeting after weeks of resisting
provincial demands for a gathering. It likely will be in Ottawa or
Toronto.
Johns said there is industry and provincial concern that with little
time left, Ottawa will impose conditions for new programs that have not
been approved by others.
