WINNIPEG (Staff) – A suggestion that part of the Crow Benefit subsidy be put into a safety net program available to farmers outside the Prairies has been criticized by Reform Party MPs.
They described it as another Quebec and Ontario attempt to take money from the West.
However, they also conceded under their party’s plan for a trade distortion compensation fund that would supplant the Crow Benefit, portions of it also would eventually find its way out of the Prairie grains and oilseeds sector.
“Initially, it would all go to grain farmers undiluted,” said Reform agriculture spokesman Leon Benoit.
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“Down the road, it would be available to other commodities as they needed it because of foreign subsidies that hurt them.”
The Reform trade distortion compensation program is one of three the party is proposing to replace all existing subsidies.
Existing Crow Benefit funds and others would be rolled into the program, which would be available to farmers whose income is reduced because of foreign subsidies.
Available across the country
Eventually, it would be available to all farmers who produce commodities for trade, from Maritime potato producers and Ontario grain producers to British Columbia fruit growers and Prairie producers.
The Reformers expressed outrage at a proposal that up to $70 million of the $560-million Crow Benefit should be put in a grains and oilseeds safety net.
The idea that Crow Benefit funds could be diluted and made available to help Ontario and Quebec farmers is “just absurd,” said Benoit.
“I think I see the Liberals being short of cash and they need to raise some funds and they think they can do it by squeezing the West.”
