Ottawa OKs $15 million on APF talks

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Published: December 19, 2002

Parliament has approved the spending of $10 million for consultations

and communications on the federal government’s agricultural policy

framework, bringing the total to $15 million.

Paul Schubert, recently appointed head of Agriculture Canada’s

communications and consultations division, told MPs that so far, the

department has spent close to $5 million organizing consultation

meetings, advertising and promotion.

He said $1.5 million of that went to the Ottawa consulting firm GPC,

which won a contract to organize and report from the 55 framework

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discussion meetings that were held across the country.

A second contract went to a company called Prime Strategies to organize

the logistics of past and future consultations.

Officials said the firms are hired for their ability to organize

consultations, rather than their specific knowledge of the topic. GPC

does not advertise agriculture as one of its key areas but the

president of the company is Jim Roche, a veteran of Saskatchewan and

federal Liberal politics, as well as the federal bureaucracy.

Ontario Liberal Paul Steckle suggested the consultation costs are too

high and others wondered why the agriculture department needs to hire

outside help.

Steckle said the Commons agriculture committee travelled across the

country studying agriculture last year for a cost of $245,000. It

produced a report recommending a revamping of Canadian farm programs

and many of the ideas were reflected in the final federal proposal.

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