Most farm leaders commenting on the reappointment of Gerry Ritz as agriculture minister said that after speculation about a new minister, the news adds stability.
“I think he has been a successful agriculture minister,” Grain Growers of Canada president Stephen Vandervalk said from his Fort Macleod, Alta., farm. “We look forward to working with him.”
Critics saw it differently.
“The prime minister has decided that the minister who presided over the largest meat recall in Canadian history should remain in charge of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,” New Democratic Party agriculture critic Malcolm Allen said. “It boggles my mind but there it is.”
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Terry Boehm, president of the National Farmers Union, said from his Saskatchewan farm that the appointment just means “more of the same” — promotion of trade deals that threaten supply management and guaranteed intellectual property rights for large companies, increased powers for agri-food giants and less power for Canadian farmers.
“While the trend of the government would not change with a different minister, I guess the idea of a new minister offered some hope of a slightly less ideological approach,” said the NFU president. “Ritz has been particularly dogged about dismantling institutions that are there for farmers.”
The NFU has been a strong critic of the Ritz-led campaign to end the CWB export monopoly and to reform the Canadian Grain Commission, arguing it adds more costs to farmers while reducing services.
However, farm sector leaders who welcomed the re-appointment offered a different view.
Vandervalk said the re-appointment is positive.
“There are files he is working on that we consider important and while we certainly could have worked with a new minister, it would have taken some time to get up to speed,”
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said he also welcomes the reappointment of the minister because of his knowledge of the files, commitment to supply management, trade agreements and recognition of the CFA push for a national food strategy.
“I think one of the things we would like to see is an overall strategy that would lay out the parameters of what priorities are in the industry,” said Bonnett. “I think minister Ritz has been successful in implementing government policy and being an advocate for agriculture in cabinet even though we have disagreed with him on some issues like the process for the Canadian Wheat Board.”
He said the next two years could bring progress on a number of trade and domestic files important to farmers.
“The sector has made several important advances under minister Ritz’s leadership, notably increased market access while continuing to protect supply management and emphasis on private-public partnerships focused on growth and innovation,” Bonnett said in the official CFA reaction statement.
For the NDP opposition, the Ritz re-appointment and the return of many familiar faces to cabinet was a sign that nothing will change.
“Today’s cabinet shuffle was little more than a public relations exercise and a desperate attempt by Stephen Harper to look like he’s putting a fresh face on a tired government while in reality, he’s simply shuffling deck chairs on a ship that’s beset by scandal, out of control and listing far to the right,” NDP deputy leader and Halifax MP Megan Leslie said July 15.
NDP agriculture critic Allen saw it the same way.
“We can simply look forward to more of the same — cuts, privatizing, division,” he said. “It is unfortunate. I was hoping for something different.”
