OTTAWA – Reform MPs last week tried, and failed, to convince the House of Commons agriculture committee that more than $20 million should be trimmed from Agriculture Canada’s 1996-97 budget.
The Liberal majority voted down the proposals, as Reform MPs on the committee knew they would.
Reform was making its budget-cutting point.
As the committee voted June 18 to approve departmental spending estimates of $1.8 billion for the current fiscal year, Reform agriculture spokesperson Elwin Hermanson suggested three cuts:
- $7.6 million from the $576.8 million operations budget. It would have come out of the corporate management and service budget which has an increase even though funded staff positions have been reduced from 813 to 755.
- $11 million of the departmental budget that has not yet been approved by Treasury Board.
- $2 million from the fund that will be used to compensate farmers in Eastern Canada and British Columbia for loss of the feed freight assistance subsidy program.
Read Also
Russian wheat exports start to pick up the pace
Russia has had a slow start for its 2025-26 wheat export program, but the pace is starting to pick up and that is a bearish factor for prices.
Hermanson said the feed freight assistance compensation fund should be reduced because the government has added $10 million over five years to the package, even though it did not sweeten the pot for prairie farmers who lost the Crow Benefit grain transportation subsidy.
The Liberal majority, sometimes with support of the Bloc QuŽbŽcois, rejected the Reform arguments.
Hermanson chided the Liberals for their reaction.
