OTTAWA (Staff) – The federal government must settle some old accounts with Quebec farmers if it wants to show them federalism works, says Quebec farm leader Laurent Pellerin.
He told federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale last week Quebec farmers have been owed millions of dollars for years but Ottawa and Quebec City have not been able to agree on settling the debt.
“It is not helping federal-provincial relations if it is impossible to solve small problems,” he said when Goodale appeared before the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual #meeting March 5. “It is hard to explain this to my farmers and still convince them the system works.”
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Pellerin said in an interview the debts in question are more than $12 million in Net Income Stabilization Account funds and $2 million still owing from the wind-up of the apple stabilization fund.
“These are not big sums but it is frustrating we cannot get it after years,” said the president of l’Union des Producteurs Agricoles.
Goodale acknowledged the debt and the delay and said he will work on it.
But he also attributed it to Quebec politics with a change of government, a separation referendum, a change of premier and a change of agriculture minister within the past year and a half.
“There have been a couple of distractions,” said the minister. “That has made to some extent the flow of information a little jerky.”
Pellerin wasn’t impressed.
“I have heard this before and it is not satisfactory,” he said. “Quebec says it is the federal fault. Ottawa says it is Quebec’s fault. Farmers are caught in the middle.”
