Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has further soured the federal-provincial agriculture relationship by postponing a September ministers’ meeting aimed at continuing negotiations over details of the next generation of agriculture policies.
The recently appointed federal minister confirmed last week he has asked that the meeting, at first scheduled for Sept. 5-6, be postponed until late October.
Part of the reason is his need for more briefings on the issues at play, which include a dispute with many provinces over the cost-sharing arrangements for future disaster payments and conflict with others over whether Ottawa will co-fund province-specific companion programs.
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But Ritz also suggested he did not want a meeting while provincial elections are underway.
Ontario and Newfoundland go to the polls in mid-October and Saskatchewan may.
“We (the federal government) don’t want to become the stage for provincial electioneering,” he said.
On Aug. 30, Ritz said in Balgonie, Sask., that he had asked for more time.
“I’m guessing it will be a little later in the fall than some of them had liked,” he said. “But they’ve also got two or possibly three provincial elections to work through … so we’ll let those work through and then we’ll have our fed-prov. meeting.”
In some provincial capitals, there was an angry reaction.
The agricultural policy framework is scheduled to expire March 31, 2008 and without a replacement or extension, funding for many of its component programs ends.
Gaps between Ottawa and some key provincial capitals showed in late June in Whistler, B.C., when negotiations between then-minister Chuck Strahl and provincial ministers were often tense.
“I am enormously frustrated and disappointed,” Ontario minister Leona Dombrowsky said Aug. 30. “We left Whistler with serious issues outstanding and agreement we would meet in early September. We need to keep working at it and there isn’t much time.”
She complained that Ritz twice had not been available for scheduled telephone calls and she has been unable to get a commitment on a future date for a call.
“I have been unable to have a conversation with the new federal minister that I think we should have.”
From Winnipeg, minister Rosann Wowchuk said Aug. 31, that she also is frustrated by the meeting delay.
Farmers and those who benefit from existing programs, ranging from the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program to farm environmental plans, have no idea if funding will last past March 31.
“We should be meeting; we should be trying to resolve these issues because there is a tremendous amount of insecurity and uncertainty,” she said. “I believe the federal government has to give some signal on what the process is and what the transition will be if there is no new agreement. Without agreement there will have to be an extension but we need federal leadership.”
Wowchuk said there has been no narrowing of the federal-provincial gaps since the Whistler meeting. In particular, she said there has been no progress on how to cost-share a proposed disaster program.
“The federal government announced a disaster assistance component and now they want provinces to pay 40 percent of it,” she said.
“That is not negotiation. That is dictate.”
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and several other provinces have argued disaster funding should be 90 percent a federal responsibility.
In Regina, Saskatchewan minister Mark Wartman, who accused Strahl of using bully tactics at the Whistler meeting, said there has been little progress in resolving federal-provincial gaps.
Wartman has been arguing that the 60-40 federal-provincial, cost-sharing formula should not be embedded in the next five year plan because it is an unfair burden on an agriculture-heavy province like Saskatchewan.
