Booming sector | The Conservatives want less taxpayer support and more private investment
While more details about government cuts to Agriculture Canada spending could be tabled in Parliament as early as this week, senior officials last week laid out the broad themes.
Greg Meredith, assistant agriculture deputy minister for strategic policy, told senators that the farm sector is booming, which translates into less need for taxpayer support, although programs are there if needed.
Government spending estimates tabled in Parliament projected a $153 million decrease in Agriculture Canada’s 2012-13 budget. The later federal budget called for steeper cuts to come in the next two years.
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However, Meredith said actual spending will increase from the cuts projected in official spending estimates as the government tables supplementary spending estimates in Parliament during the year.
As well, business risk management programs such as AgriStability and AgriInvest respond to farmer demand rather than a pre-determined budget.
“These programs are there to support farmers when times are bad,” he told the Senate finance committee.
“Farmers, if they get into particular situations, will trigger payments on a demand basis, and because the sector is doing very well, we are actually forecasting to spend less money supporting farmers.”
The government is also expecting industry to start investing more in variety research, which would reduce the public role.
“We have an initiative now to try to attract more investment in variety development,” Meredith said.
“Canada lags behind some of our key competitors, notably Australia, when it comes to wheat variety research and development. There are a variety of reasons for that, but we are already seeing signs that the private sector is very interested in moving more aggressively into variety development in wheat.”
Jody Aylard, acting assistant deputy minister for research, said Agriculture Canada has been funding the bulk of wheat research in Canada, with universities contributing some and the private sector adding just 10 percent of the funding.
She predicted that will change.
“There is an opportunity, and part of what we are doing going forward is in terms of getting the regulatory environment right for those players to invest and to make some space for them to take part in the investment in wheat research,” said Aylard.
Senator Pamela Wallin asked if the department is confident private companies will step up.
“Yes, they are certainly showing an interest,” Aylard replied.
The following day during an appearance before the Senate agriculture committee, former senior Agriculture Canada official Doug Hedley said the government plan to reduce the public share of research funding is nothing new.
He argued that despite government’s primary role in funding agricultural research in the past, that role has been declining even if the private sector has not been filling the gap.
“Since the mid-1980s, public funding of agriculture and food research in Canada by government has fallen quite sharply,” said Hedley, executive director of the Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine.
