REGINA – While there will be many challenges facing the new agriculture minister, the Saskatchewan government has laid the foundations of a good policy, says Darrel Cunningham.
As the former agriculture minister, Cunningham mused over his career while clearing out his office after being defeated in the recent provincial election.
Renegotiating a safety net for farmers will be a prime challenge, he said. The present federal-provincial safety net will last only this year and next, so the new minister will have to move quickly to help design a replacement, he said.
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The host of problems affecting crop insurance will also be a major concern because it will have to be renegotiated, he said.
On a more general level, agriculture policies will have to be examined to see if they are meeting producers’ needs.
“I think the government needs to reassess the agricultural support” producers receive,” Cunningham said.
About $500 million of provincial money goes into agricultural programs each year, but “a lot of farmers are saying government shouldn’t be involved in agriculture, so whether there should be a withdrawing from that or (if the government) should spend more” is a question that will have to be answered.
Interim minister
Cunningham’s replacement had not been named at press time, but premier Roy Romanow has suggested highways minister Andy Renaud would be a good interim agriculture minister. Since transportation changes are likely to be the largest agricultural concern this summer and into the fall, Renaud would be well-suited to work with the federal government on Saskatchewan’s behalf, Romanow said.
Renaud is a real estate agent from Tisdale who grew up on a family farm near Marcelin.
Under Cunningham, agriculture was a less politically spotlighted department than under predecessor Berny Wiens or former Tory premier Grant Devine.
Devine took agriculture under his control. The controversial Gross Revenue Insurance Plan changes in 1992 made Wiens the focus of a political storm by the Tory opposition and farmers opposed to the changes.
He was moved out of the portfolio to be replaced by Cunningham.
Agricultural bills were seldom the focus of strenuous opposition attacks during Cunningham’s tenure, a form of relative political peace he said he worked to create.
“I thought agriculture was in enough trouble and there were enough changes to go through that it couldn’t be from the top down.”
