Ontario farmers are turning the vise on skittish Ontario Liberal MPs this autumn, demanding more government support. Prairie farmers may benefit from it.
Prairie farm leaders and economists say any government decision to help Ontario farmers will have to be applied nationally.
They expect the Ontario lobby to win some government commitments in this sensitive pre-election season.
“I don’t know what to expect, but I do know that any program for Ontario would have to be applied nationally,” Manitoba farm leader Don Dewar said Oct. 3. “It could not be for just one province.”
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Added Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen, a Manitoba farmer: “I think there is a reasonable chance there will be more help from the government and it will have to apply nationally. I certainly think the politicians are sensitive now to the fact what is there is not enough.”
The Ontario campaign, driven by an expectation of lower incomes because of crop damage caused by excessive rain, and low prices because of American subsidies, is centred on a demand for “parity” between American and Canadian levels of farm support.
The Ontario coalition of general farm organizations, and grains and oilseeds producers says it would cost federal and provincial governments an additional $300 million a year to bring
Ontario support to levels equivalent to the Americans.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture estimates that would mean an extra $1.5 billion in national funding. By the normal federal-provincial funding splits, it would mean an additional $1 billion federal and $500 million provincial.
Those numbers are not universally accepted but the farm lobby insists the bill would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
During a lobby blitz of Parliament Hill in late September, a number of Liberal MPs were sympathetic to the Ontario argument that Canada must do more for its farmers in the face of America’s multi-billion-dollar support commitments.
At the University of Saskatchewan, agricultural economist Ken Rosaasen said complaints about the gap between American and Canadian support levels is old news on the Prairies.
Strong voice will help
Ontario’s discovery of the issue is an important development.
“The West hasn’t had an effective farm lobby voice and I’ve always been impressed by Ontario’s strength,” he said Oct. 3. “They are now taking a leadership role and I think the West will benefit from anything they get. I can only cheer them on.”
Rosaasen said he expects a large federal commitment this winter for more farm support, whether or not there is an election.
“They just have to see that what is there is not enough,” he said.
He predicted most of the aid will come from Ottawa, perhaps without the normal 40 percent from provincial governments. Particularly in agricultural provinces, the governments cannot afford their share of another $500 million.
Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said he recently talked to Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk and he confirmed Rosaasen’s prediction.
“I asked her if Manitoba would be there and she said there just isn’t the money.”
