Political critics find a little to praise and much to criticize in Ottawa’s compensation package announced last week for the beleaguered cattle industry.
Mainly, opposition MPs saw it as a stopgap measure designed to make it look like Ottawa was responding but based on the uncertain hope that the border will open soon.
They said agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief should have been more prepared to deal with a crisis. Although only one case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy has closed the export market for more than a month, there has been planning in the past for the fallout from such an animal disease.
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“It is a crisis that was foreseen,” insisted New Democrat Dick Proctor. “Yet they seemed to be scrambling to find a package. It’s good that they did but it should not have been this big surprise.”
Other parliamentary critics agreed, although they will not be able to level their criticisms in Parliament until it reconvenes in mid-September.
“It’s my opinion that this is a temporary program that won’t really help my producers and it is designed to pay out less the longer it goes on,” said Manitoba Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Rick Borotsik. “The longer he (Vanclief) can sit on it, the less he has to pay. This is more political gesture than aid.”
Canadian Alliance critic Howard Hilstrom, a Manitoba cattle producer, said the payout formula seems reasonable for feedlot operators.
“But this does nothing for the cow-calf man and they are hurting too,” he said.
The Alliance MP said the program’s limitations, including the exclusion of the rendering industry, suggest government assumes a quick border reopening.
Proctor criticized Ottawa for insisting that provinces pay 40 percent of the costs, the cost-sharing formula embedded in the agricultural policy framework.
“This clearly is bigger than the APF and they should not be using that formula,” he said.
Proctor also questioned why supermarkets are not being pressured to lower beef prices to stimulate domestic demand.
