The promised House of Commons agriculture committee public hearings in Western Canada this fall are in doubt.
The committee, which promised western farm leaders and agriculture ministers last spring that it would travel west this fall after harvest, submitted a proposal for a cross-Canada trip that would cost more than $300,000. Tentative plans call for a western trip Dec. 3-7.
The House of Commons liaison committee, which controls committee travel expenses, has approved only the trip’s least expensive part of the trip – hearings in Ontario and Quebec.
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There also was a suggestion that hearings in Atlantic Canada could be approved.
Opposition sources say that Commons budget planners resisted paying for the western portion of the trip because the committee held hearings in the West two years ago.
The agriculture committee, including Liberals, will ask that the decision be reviewed, arguing that hearings in the West are crucial.
Support chances
Farmers should know in December how the faltering economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States will affect their outlook this year for government support.
Finance minister Paul Martin has announced he will present a new budget before the end of December. It will be his first in almost two years.
Speculation is that it will come Dec. 4 or 11.
Martin is expected to use the budget to beef up funding for security, policing, the military and spying as Canada joins the international campaign against terrorism.
The finance minister also is expected to warn that the federal government’s finances are weakening as the economy sinks, unemployment grows, expenditures rise and tax revenues decrease.
Farm lobbyists will be watching for two main signals:
- Will there be a commitment to make money available for drought or farm income relief if necessary?
- Will there be a weakening in the government commitment of long-term funding for a new agriculture policy?
Agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief has been planning to go to cabinet this fall with details of a new long-term policy, to be signed with provinces next year. The policy would carry a multi-billion dollar price tag.
Farm leaders, and Vanclief himself, will be listening closely for hints about Martin’s willingness to make such long-term financial commitments in the midst of fiscal uncertainty.
CA members prefer merger
A slim majority of Canadian Alliance members who responded to a party survey say they want a deal with the Progressive Conservative party before the next election that would see the two parties field a single candidate in every one of Canada’s 301 ridings.
As well, 51 percent of the almost 13,000 party members who filled out the form said their preference would be that “the two parties should merge together in a new party.”
It was a switch for the western-based political party, formed in the 1980s as a reaction against the PCs. Its goal in the last three elections has been to replace the Tories, rather than merge with them.
However, a year of turmoil under Stockwell Day’s troubled leadership has led to a nosedive in the polls, a fall-off in memberships, money troubles and defection of eight MPs to form a parliamentary coalition with the Conservatives.
So far, Conservative leader Joe Clark has shown little interest in giving up the PC party to meld into a new party.
Deputy Alliance leader Grant Hill said the results of the membership survey will be useful background knowledge as the party holds a leadership vote next March. It is expected the issue of how much to co-operate with the Conservatives will be a key issue between candidates.
Saskatchewan chicken boom
Canadian chicken production is five percent above last year’s level, according to Chicken Farmers of Canada statistics.
By Oct. 13, Canadian production hit 726.6 million kilograms, while imports declined slightly to 73.7 million kg. Although it remains one of the smallest producing provinces, Saskatchewan’s production increased the fastest.
By mid-October, Saskatchewan production hit 21.7 million kg, up almost 18 percent from last year.
