Saskatchewan Reform MPs last week told the federal government that Saskatchewan farmers want the farm aid package enriched and the payout formula changed to a simple acreage payment.
The eight MPs said that was the overwhelming view of hundreds of farmers who attended farm meetings organized through January.
“There was a definite expression of concern that the amount of money being proposed by the federal government is inadequate for the needs of western farmers,” said the statement.
And there was concern about the complexity of the proposed income-based system. “The majority of farmers favor payments based upon cultivated acreage.”
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The MPs asked agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief “to seriously consider the opinions of Saskatchewan farmers.”
But these proposals are not part of Reform party policy and several MPs cited in the statement said they were not promoting them, simply reporting them.
“I am neither agreeing with them nor disagreeing with them but I am personally not into subsidies,” said Battlefords-Lloydminster MP Gerry Ritz in an interview Feb. 5.
“But as I went to the meetings, I saw farmer frustration growing. As an MP, I represent everybody, all my constituents. If a majority want me to go in a direction, I either take that view to Ottawa or I resign.”
Yorkton-Melville MP and deputy agriculture critic Garry Breitkreuz said the complaint to Vanclief was a reflection of the views heard at farm meetings.
But he qualified his support.
He said he did not support more subsidy money, as the Reform statement suggested.
Instead, he thought the way to go was to reduce government taxes and user fees to increase farm income. That is in line with Reform policy.
He said he plans to have research done into the cost of built-in taxes on farm inputs.
After he saw the Reform party statement, Vanclief said it was not credible.
A party that has opposed government supports cannot credibly now demand more subsidy, he said.
And acreage payments like those organized a decade ago by the Brian Mulroney government would no longer meet trade rule obligations to avoid paying subsidies indiscriminately to support production.
“If it (acreage payments) was considered, it was considered for about three seconds and rejected,” Vanclief said in a Feb. 5 interview.
