REGINA – They all agree the federal budget hurts western Canadian agriculture more than any other part of the national economy.
But western agriculture ministers each face unique provincial problems.
“We are suffering the most hurt as a result of the changes” to grain transportation, said Manitoba agriculture minister Harry Enns. He said Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan producers will bear the brunt of Crow Benefit loss because they are furthest from the ocean.
In compensation for their landlocked position, those producers should be given “first dibs” on any future grain sales to the U.S., Enns said.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Alberta agriculture minister Walter Pas-zkowki said his province’s producers have been unfairly treated in the Crow demise because they have diversified production and will benefit less from the buyout than those from Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Alberta produces 51 percent of Canada’s forage, he said, but since this is not covered by the Crow buyout, producers will receive no federal money.
“We chose to diversify and we’re being penalized for it,” he said. “There’s no recognition for what we have done.”
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Darrel Cunningham and B.C. agriculture minister David Zirnhelt both fingered the Crow buyout as their major worry.
Zirnhelt said paying the money to landowners is dangerous because in some parts of Peace River country more than half the land is rented.
And if the money goes to foreign landowners and banks, “there’s no guarantee it’s going to be put in the future of the industry.”
Cunningham said the fight over the Crow buyout is less important than the problem created by its dollar value.
“We’ve only got $1.6 billion, which is less than one-quarter the value of the Crow Benefit,” he said. “Now they (the federal government) have a huge problem in how to pay it, who to pay it to, who should get it and how to flow it through and they’re coming to the provincial government saying ‘fix this problem for us’.”
Federal agriculture minister Ralph Good-ale and a coalition of prairie farm groups agreed to the principle of a one-time buyout with farm groups, believing “efficiencies would drive the process of change in the method of payment,” said Paszkowski.
But the low buy-out price and its timing, before efficiencies have been identified or accomplished, makes him cynical about the meetings with Goodale.
“I thought we were engaging in good input and consultation,” he said. “We met a lot of times and made a lot of presentations and made a lot of effort to make sure this was done fairly and properly, and it doesn’t appear any of our consultation was heard.”
He said the Crow buyout would only make sense if regulatory changes, such as allowing Canadian grain to be shipped through the U.S., occur at the same time.
