A month after prime minister Jean Chrétien won praise by promising as
much as $1 billion in federal and provincial farm aid this year and
next, the initial farmer enthusiasm is being replaced by cynicism and
frustration over lack of detail, farm leaders say.
“One thing I find entirely unacceptable is that they have not decided
yet how to flow that short-term money,” said Canadian Federation of
Agriculture president Bob Friesen.
“I think when ministers met in Halifax, they should have spent less
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time trying to get everyone to sign onto the long-term and more time
working on the details of the short-term.”
Brian Kriz, Alberta farmer and president of Grain Growers of Canada,
said farmers are becoming frustrated with the lack of detail. Federal
ministers have said they want the cheques out by fall, but so far
farmers have no clue about how they will qualify or what their share
might be.
Last week, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture said farmers with
bills to pay need money, not promises.
“Stress caused by depressed commodity prices, mounting farm input
expenditures and a shortage of cash to pay the bills is making life
difficult for many farmers and their families,” OFA president Jack
Wilkinson said in a statement.
Despite the promises of June, farmers remain in the dark about some key
questions:
- How big will the 2002 aid package be? Ottawa has called on provinces
to add another $400 million but several, including Saskatchewan,
Manitoba and British Columbia, have said they will not. If they hold
that position, their farmers will receive just the federal money while
farmers in other provinces receive millions of dollars more.
- How will the $600 million in federal funding be divided among
provinces? Farm leaders have been urging that it be targeted according
to need, but in recent years, most provinces have insisted that support
dollars be divided according to the size of provincial farm economies.
- How will farmers qualify for help? Will payments be based on
cultivated acreage, weighted to producers of crops affected by foreign
subsidies, directed mainly to drought areas or distributed according to
some historic production and price formula?
National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells said farmers should not
be surprised by the delay and confusion. The entire “flurry of
announcements” of farm aid during the past month has been less than it
appears, he added.
“I think farmers have such low expectations of the government that I
don’t think I can say there is great frustration or cynicism over
this,” he said July 19. “It is what farmers expect. With any
announcement from the government, it is best to take a wait-and-see
attitude.”
Wells said the NFU is surprised that other farm groups and companies
were so supportive of the government’s initial announcement.
