OTTAWA – The future of the Crow Benefit grain transportation subsidy likely will be decided in the parliamentary session opening this week.
“I’m not certain I can predict the timing but … obviously we are going to have to have a focus on the Western Grain Transportation Act (WGTA) at some point,” agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said last week when asked about the issue. “Clearly, it is something that will require addressing in the foreseeable future.”
Politicians from government and opposition sides say they expect the issue to surface in the session that opened Jan. 17 and likely will continue into late 1994 or 1995.
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And new international trade rules, as well as domestic political lobbying, are combining to increase pressure on the government to reopen the WGTA during the first year of its mandate.
“I really think it will be an issue,” rookie Liberal MP Glen McKinnon (Brandon-Souris) said last week. “Goodale has been handed a real hot potato on that one. It will be hard to avoid.”
Issue is a priority
There was agreement from Ian McClelland, Edmonton MP and Reform Party spokesman on economic development who said “the grain transportation issue will have to be dealt with.”
The pressures forcing the contentious issue onto the table are coming from many directions.
- The Liberals have inherited momentum created by the previous Conservative government, which had decided the method-of-payment should be changed and appointed a task force to figure out the best way to do it. Goodale has said he will not be bound by the report due next month, but the recommendations will intensify the public debate.
- The new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade deal to take effect next year requires that export subsidies be reduced by 36 percent in funding and 21 percent by volume within seven years. Since the Crow Benefit paid on westward export shipments has been deemed an export subsidy, the rules will have to be changed or its value will be sharply reduced.
- Financial pressures will lead government budget makers to look enviously at the $650 million annual payment. The Conservatives had started to reduce the value of the subsidy and the Liberals will be tempted to do the same.
- The domestic lobby against the current method of payment has grown in strength recently as the country’s exporter lobby came out in favor of a change.
The political breakdown in the Parliament is uncertain.
Producer vote possible?
The Liberals appear divided on the issue and during the campaign, some candidates raised the possibility of a producer vote.
The Reform Party favors ending the subsidy as it now exists and rolling it into a new support program available to help farmers hurt by foreign subsidies. They too suggest a farmer referendum might be needed.
The Bloc QuŽbecois opposes change in the method of payment but if it is changed from a transportation to a production subsidy, will insist that Quebec farmers receive a share.
These developments have led farm groups opposed to changing the method of payment, such as Prairie Pools Inc., to conclude that the battle soon will be joined again.
“There will have to be some consideration of the implications of the new GATT rules and we will have to keep a close watch on what is being proposed,” PPI chair Ken Edie said last week. “I guess the debate is coming.”
