MANITOU SPRINGS, Sask. – The federal government turned off the tap in last year’s budget and now the drought is becoming evident.
Some of the groups that the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network used to meet with are no longer active. The loss of federal grants meant the end of the National Coalition on Rural Child Care, the Canadian Farm Women’s Education Council, Agricultural Employment Services, plus a decline in the Saskatchewan Labor Force Development Board and the Canadian Farm Women’s Network. SWAN itself, may be bruised, since it got about $15,000, a third of its annual budget, from Ottawa in 1996.
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“Some of these boards maybe became defunct because they served their purpose,” said Lee Ann Tessier, president of SWAN. But there are many others that are still needed, she said.
“We have to find vehicles to address those problems.”
Tessier said the SWAN membership wears several hats by sitting on advisory panels and on community interest groups.
“We’re sure acquiring the skills to handle these issues. Personally, I make a lot better business decisions on our farm” because of committee work, she said. And not only are the individual members benefiting, SWAN is also being recognized for the work it has done.
In his speech to the SWAN conference last weekend, Saskatchewan agriculture minister Eric Upshall thanked the organization for not only presenting policy suggestions but for supplying names of farm women to serve on government committees.
Tessier said she met federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale and he seems “able to recognize SWAN has talented women” but he’s always saying he has no funding.
