OTTAWA — Last year’s federal election campaign is long over, but NDP leader Thomas Mulcair delivered that kind of speech during last week’s Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting.
He promised his party would strongly defend farmers, calling NDP MPs the “progressive” opposition in the House of Commons, and outlined the party’s “bold” vision for agriculture, beginning with a comprehensive national food strategy, strengthened business risk management programs and restored collective marketing for grain.
He promised to continue to support supply management, and also took aim at the Liberal government, saying it is already backtracking on issues such as signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership without amendment.
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“There’s still no word on compensation for affected dairy farmers by either the European or Pacific trade agreements,” he said.
As well, he said the Liberals no longer support collective marketing through a wheat board.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said. “We believe the government has a positive role to play in making it easier for you to keep the family farm.”
However, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Norm Hall took Mulcair to task for his comment that the loss of 30,000 small- and medium-sized farms in the last 10 years had made way for more corporate farms.
Hall asked delegates how many had incorporated their operations, and most raised their hands.
He then asked how many were family farms and, again, most raised their hands.
“You’re saying that corporate farms aren’t good, yet 97 percent of the corporate farms in Canada are family farms” for income tax reasons, he told Mulcair.
Mulcair apologized, saying he understood the difference between an incorporated family farm and a large integrated corporate farm that moves into an area and uses its vast resources to take over.
Meanwhile, Conservative agriculture critic Chris Warkentin said the Liberals’ proposed national carbon tax would increase costs to farm families and inhibit investment.
