Dean Lien hears a lot of complaints from farmers.
As Alberta’s farmers’ advocate, he receives calls daily from farmers upset with poor grain prices, or oil companies messing up their land, or utility companies using their muscle to increase prices, or governments raising taxes while cutting services.
He thinks farmers should shout that they won’t take it any more, but the problem, Lien said, is who will do the shouting.
In Alberta, there are groups representing canola growers, barley growers, white wheat producers, soft wheat producers, grass seed producers, pork producers, cow-calf producers, feedlot operators, vegetable producers, bison producers, elk producers and ostrich producers.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers commit to enhancing competitiveness
Canadian ag ministers said they want to ensure farmers, ranchers and processors are competitive through ongoing regulatory reform and business risk management programs that work.
But no one speaks for agriculture, Lien said.
With the exodus of people from rural Alberta, never has the need been greater for a unified farm voice, he said.
“Someone has to be out there saying this is rural Alberta and we need a voice,” he said. “We need an organization that can stand up and represent rural Alberta.”
But Lien admits it will take a strong leader and a strong organization to forget about old disputes and perceived injustices.
Alberta hasn’t had a strong farm lobby group in almost 15 years, when Unifarm came apart during the Crow debate.
In 1982, the long-standing schism between the Alberta Cattle Commission and the farm lobby group came to a head. The cattle organization withdrew membership and its $90,000 a year membership fee from Unifarm. It refused to be part of an organization that endorsed the freight rate subsidy being paid to the railway.
The cattle commission wanted the money paid to producers to promote local industry. Unifarm, backed by Alberta Wheat Pool, its other major member, wanted the money to be paid to the railways to maintain an efficient export grain industry.
The cattle commission’s departure was followed by Alberta Wheat Pool. Over the years the group saw a steady decline from 30,000 members and a multi-million budget to 1,700 members and a $130,000 budget. It also changed its name to Wild Rose Agricultural Producers.
Alan Holt, president of Wild Rose, said the agricultural organization formed from the ashes of Unifarm would like to see a strong agriculture group. He’s even willing to end his organization to create a strong farm lobby.
“I’d gladly dissolve Wild Rose if producers wanted a new organization,” Holt said.
“We just want a strong general farm organization.”
Holt, of Bashaw, doesn’t expect a strong farm group to emerge without stable funding. Wild Rose asked the provincial government to deduct $5 from the sale of farm licence plates to help fund the organization. The government turned it down.
But during the latest presentation to the provincial government’s standing policy committee on agriculture, Holt said he sensed less hostility from politicians and bureaucrats.
When Walter Paszkowski was minister of agriculture and Doug Radke his deputy minister, Wild Rose didn’t have a hope of getting a checkoff, Holt said.
With Ty Lund as the latest agriculture minister and Jim Nichols as deputy minister, the group is sensing a “change in atmosphere.
“Maybe they will look at old issues with a little less prejudice,” Holt said.
Lien said the organization needs more than stable funding to survive. It needs to recognize that sometimes it can’t deal with controversial issues, Lien said.
Gary Sargent, general manager of the Alberta Cattle Commission, isn’t so sure a new lobby group could survive. In the past 20 years, agriculture has changed, he said. Farmers identify more readily with a single issue or commodity group.
As well, a farm organization that deals with only non-confrontational issues would be unattractive for prospective members, Sargent said.
“The focus becomes quite narrow and quite uninteresting.”
The cattle commission has joined the Alberta Agricultural Forum, a loosely knit group of about 25 agriculture organizations, formed in 1992.
The group lobbies government only if there is consensus among the organizations that make up the group.
They have only lobbied the government once in recent years – on farm taxes.
Neil Silver, a former Unifarm member and now director with Agricore, sees no easy way to create a strong farm lobby group.
Agricore is also a member of the Alberta Agricultural Forum, but has kept a low profile since the fiery debate that split Unifarm.
After the public feuding, pool delegates passed a resolution that the grain company would not join in public policy debates.
“We learned a lesson. We needed to refocus on how we handled public policy,” said Silver, who farms near Huxley.
“I don’t know what the solution is. There are lots of issues that don’t get the focus they probably should.”
