REGINA – The nuggets of good news were few in an agriculture official’s speech to the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network conference.
Ernie Spencer told SWAN members meeting here last weekend that the province was granting their group $6,000 this year.
He also noted that the agriculture department had 28 women sitting on its 14 boards and agencies, including several SWAN members. While that representation only gave farm women a quarter of the seats, versus men’s three-quarters, he said the department was hoping to improve the female numbers in future.
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Then the news went sour. Realized farm income for Saskatchewan farmers in 1998 will be about half of the five-year average. And 1999 “shows a further decline is a possibility,” Spencer said.
He also noted Saskatchewan is still negotiating its share of a federal-provincial farm aid package and the design of a national safety net.
But when asked by Carolyn McDonald whether grain producers can expect a cash advance like the province granted hog producers, Spencer could only offer the federal promise that the farm aid will be ” bankable.” Even if the money does not arrive by seeding time this spring, lenders should still provide operating room to farmers, he said.
Noreen Johns asked him how many farmers will qualify for the aid package and whether those cheques will be substantial enough. Spencer responded that the provincial department’s analysis showed “more producers than we thought will qualify but the amount they get relative to a farm’s cash flow will not be large.”
He said bigger and better subsidies are unlikely because the federal government says its hands are tied due to world trade rules and fears of American retaliation.
Johns said it’s obvious the United States and Europe are subsidizing their producers so why is Canada lily white on the rules?
Spencer said in his view “big fishes get to do what they want more than small fish.”
To which McDonald retorted: “Right now, I’m feeling like a piranha.”
