REGINA – Not a single farmer showed up to protest Paul Martin’s Crow-killing budget when the federal finance minister visited Regina last week.
While Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon complained about the end of the rail transportation subsidy in her meeting with Martin before his address to a Regina business group, Martin faced little criticism during the visit.
A small group protesting civil service cuts milled around outside the hall while he spoke inside.
After a brief summary and defence of his landmark budget, Martin faced generally friendly questions from the audience and afterward had chats with Regina business people over how to continue his fight against the federal deficit.
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Martin said the Crow buy-out package, which some organizations have denounced as outrageously low, is a good one and a far better one than he had originally proposed.
“None of the transition money was there. The up-front payment was virtually not there, (nor) the billion dollar line of credit. Virtually the entire package was substantially lower,” he said.
Martin lauded federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale for his defence of farm interests.
“There were finance fights with everyone, but Ralph Goodale is one of the very few ministers who won.”
