Brandon-Souris MP Rick Borotsik, for more than six years the Progressive Conservative agriculture critic, is not so sure Canadian farmers are seeing the real Bob Speller.
Speller, the new agriculture minister, has been drawing positive reviews by touring at a frantic pace since his Dec. 12 appointment, spreading the message that he wants to listen to farmers and develop programs that they want and that work to get money to them quickly.
“He is saying all the right words,” Borotsik said in a Jan. 28 interview from his Brandon office.
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“But face it, he’s a caretaker minister for two months until the election and he’s not going to be forced to make any concrete decisions before then. The real test will be if he is reaffirmed as minister after the election. Then I think we’ll see a different Bob Speller and a different attitude.”
The difference, he said, is that with a mandate stretching before it, the government likely will revert to an “Ottawa knows best” attitude about agriculture policy, an inflexibility that Borotsik figures will come because the bureaucracy remains convinced it has the answers.
After an election, the bureaucracy will reassert its control over the politicians.
“One of my frustrations since I’ve been in Parliament is seeing how inflexible the department has been when presented with farmer objections to their plans,” said Borotsik, who announced last week he will leave federal politics in the spring rather than run as a candidate for the new Conservative party.
“It may be my political cynicism coming out but I have not yet seen a minister stand up to that.”
The MP said government attempts to create farm support programs in the past seven years have been “a fiasco” of after-the-fact payments, financial or detail uncertainty and unpopularity among farmers.
He said the five-year length of business risk management programs in the agricultural policy framework is “a good first step but it took seven years to take it and even then, there are disputes with the farm community over how it should be done.”
Borotsik said the government should consider American-style farm programs that guarantee a commodity price when products are sold so farmers have the income when they need it and not a year or two later when income tax records show that they had a loss in the previous year and should get some money in the future.
“Programs really should provide money up front when it is needed and farmers should know what they will have to pay their bills,” he said.
Borotsik announced his political future after weeks of dithering and clear messages that he was not happy that the Progressive Conservative party was being dissolved in a merger with the socially conservative Canadian Alliance. He said it was less a merger than an Alliance takeover.
Borotsik will sit in the Conservative caucus during what is expected to be a short parliamentary session that began Feb. 2 before an election that could be called as early as April. Then he will retire and consider private sector and provincial political options.
While the assumption was that Borotsik decided to quit because of the death of the PCs and the ascension of the Alliance-influenced Conservatives, he said he likely would not have stood for re-election even if the PCs had survived. He was despondent at the 2003 PC leadership convention when Nova Scotia MP Peter MacKay won the top job.
“In a way, the decision was made on the floor of the convention,” he said.
“I could not see myself offering as a candidate under his leadership.”
