SASKATOON – Quebec farmers are asking Ottawa for as much as $48 million in compensation for what they consider the negative fall-out for Quebec from the end of the Crow Benefit subsidy.
But they do not expect it to come out of the $300 million set aside by the federal government for transitional adjustment funding.
And they realize the cheques will not be in the mail quickly.
“This is going to affect Quebec farmers and we want some compensation for it,” said Claude Lafleur, director general of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles.
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“We have done our calculations and sent our numbers to Ottawa. Now we must wait. This will not be easy for them, I know.”
He said agriculture minister Ralph Goodale has made it clear that farmers outside the Prairies will not have access to the $300 million Western Grain Transportation Act transition fund which kicks in next year.
“Our compensation will have to come from a national program,” said Lafleur. “I do not expect the government would be able to set up a program just for Quebec.”
He said UPA calculates the province should receive $24 million to $48 million to help make its feed grain industry more efficient. The reason is that with the end of the Crow Benefit subsidy, feed grain prices are expected to drop on the Prairies and Western Canadian producers of livestock and grain could have a competitive advantage on the markets compared to Quebec farmers.
“This makes us less competitive,” said Lafleur. “We want some compensation to help level the playing field.”
He said it could be used to build infrastructure such as silos and to help improve productivity in the grain sector.
The UPA, one of the most influential farm lobby groups in Canada, has traditionally opposed changes to the Crow subsidy. It says that if the bias toward export grain was ended, more prairie grain would stay in Canada, the prairie livestock sector would expand and Quebec farmers would have to face government-induced competition.
During the 1981-83 political fight to change the Crow subsidy, UPA was a powerful ally for prairie opponents of the move. This time, said Lafleur, the farm group still opposes the change but without prairie allies it does not plan to fight it.
“Since there seems to be no fight in the West, we will not fight alone,” he said. “Our approach is to make sure we get our fair compensation.”
