After years of opposing government subsidies that could trigger trade challenges, Canada’s beleaguered hog industry is asking Ottawa for an aid package that would send almost $1 billion to the industry.
Canadian Pork Council president Jurgen Preugschas said May 14 in an interview from Washington that the survival of the industry is at stake.
The CPC is asking for a government payment of $30 per head.
“We think it is very urgent and the calls I have been getting from producers is that they need an assurance that the money is going to come,” he said.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
The industry has been hit by a series of calamities in recent years that range from high feed costs and low prices to reduced exports and lower prices because of American country-of-origin labelling regulations and now, market problems because of the H1N1 outbreak.
Preugschas said that during a recent meeting with agriculture minister Gerry Ritz where the call for aid was made, he was told the government supports the industry and wants to work with it.
“Of course, that is far from writing a cheque,” he said.
Ritz was not positive about the prospect of a special ad hoc payment when he was asked about it during a House of Commons examination of Agriculture Canada May 14.
He said any help for the industry must fall within international trade rules and not be subject to challenge as a trade-distorting subsidy.
“It would be senseless to close a border by initiating a payment,” he told Liberal MP Ralph Goodale. “Certainly those discussions (with the industry) go on. We are working with the pork industry as to how we can do that through existing programming.”
In an earlier answer to Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter, Ritz noted that the hog industry is cyclical and the government had targeted programs and the cash advance program that helped the industry.
Easter said that response is not adequate. Existing programs and trade deals will not address the business-threatening losses that hog producers are now experiencing.
Easter said the fact that the industry is appealing for government help is a sign of how deep the crisis is.
“They have been opposed to ad hoc payments for 20 years so I think this shows just how desperate they are and that it is a matter of industry survival,” he said. “They have decided the threat of trade action is better than loss of an industry.”
Preugschas, a Mayerthorpe, Alta., producer, said the industry is reeling from “a multitude of shocks” and an appeal to government for short-term help is the only option.
