Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is promising a farmer-friendly overhaul of farm programs if he wins government, including a vow not to cut agricultural supports to tame the deficit.
Fifteen years ago, farm leaders complained that their programs and sector took a disproportionate hit when a previous Liberal government eliminated the deficit.
“I can assure you that we do not want to reduce farm supports,” Ignatieff told Ontario farm leader Bette Jean Crews during an appearance at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting Feb. 24.
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“We do not want to get us back to fiscal balance on the back of Canadian farmers. That would be crazy. You feed us, you’re a growth industry. You’ve got fantastic potential.”
Ignatieff renewed an earlier promise to review all farm programs if he takes government. He said he is tired of hearing farmers complain that programs are not working for them.
“I hear you and now it’s time to fix it together,” he said.
“We’re going to have to review all of these programs, not from the top down, but sit around the table with you when we get into government to figure out what’s working and what is not working.”
Ignatieff also returned to a theme he raised two years ago when he first appeared at a CFA convention as the freshly chosen leader: that disparities between services in rural and urban Canada are dividing the country.
“One of the reasons we have put so much emphasis on rural policy is not just because we want to be nice to farmers,” he told delegates.
“It’s because we believe this is a national unity issue. We don’t want to have two Canadas. We want to have one Canada.”
He said a Liberal government would spend half a billion dollars to improve rural internet service, create a national food policy that emphasizes getting more Canadian food on Canadian tables, spend more on agricultural research, offer a tax break for rural volunteer fire fighters and encourage more health-care workers to go to rural Canada by forgiving thousands of dollars in education debt.
However, Ignatieff told Crews he cannot say how much his promises to agriculture would cost or how they would be funded. Only in government would he be able to see the real numbers.
He said the Liberal promise to kill a Conservative plan for corporate tax cuts would create $6 billion in revenue that the government is now willing to forego.
“I can’t put a number on farm programs,” he said. “Let’s put them in a hopper, talk about them and see what works.”
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz issued a dismissive statement in response to Ignatieff’s promises.
“Liberal farm policies failed Canadian agriculture producers for 13 years and now that farmers are finally getting back to profitability, the Ignatieff liberals want to take us back,” he said. “Instead of bridging some imaginary academic divide, the Harper government is standing up for rural Canada with actual programs that strengthen the farmgate.”
In a Feb. 24 interview, Ignatieff insisted the chasm between rural and urban Canada is not an academic divide.
He said rural Canada needs services, infrastructure and health care so young people will stay on the farm.
