Ottawa’s controversial proposals for new farm safety net programs have to be improved to increase farmer acceptance, says the new chair of the Liberal rural caucus, but the government is correct in pressing ahead with implementation before the final details are complete.
Andy Savoy, a first-term MP from New Brunswick, said in an interview the details of business risk management programs need more “tweaking” to respond to farmer criticisms.
But he disagreed with farmers and provinces that insist existing programs be extended for a year to give designers a chance to get the details right and farmers enough time to understand their implications.
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“I don’t agree with more delay,” he said. “Let’s get on with this. Every day we don’t have it in place is a loss.”
Savoy said he is familiar with complaints and skepticism but believes a program acceptable to farmers can be designed and in place by the fall.
“The details are not cast in stone and are being changed almost weekly to try to make them better, but we have to keep moving forward.”
In fact, that volatility is one reason many farm groups have asked for an extension of existing programs. They say they are reluctant to enter a five-year program before they know how it will work and if it will be better than what now exists.
Savoy said his contacts with farmers, including an advisory committee of farmers in his own riding, have convinced him that support for long-term stability in farm programming and funding is solid.
“We have to get away from piecemeal and I think we can agree soon on how to do that. Farmers want that.”
Savoy was elected chair of the 72-member Liberal rural caucus recently after former chair Murray Calder was named parliamentary secretary to the trade minister.
The caucus of senators and MPs, with occasional visits from member Jean Chrétien, meets weekly when Parliament is in session. The rural chair then reports to the entire caucus at its weekly meetings.
Savoy, a consultant before defeating a Progressive Conservative MP in the 2000 election, said he worked on farms growing up and now represents a riding that is headquarters to one of Canada’s most prominent food companies – McCain Foods.
“I’m a huge promoter of value added and I see what it has done in my riding,” he said.
“It is one of the issues I will be pushing. I see rural caucus, and myself as chair, as being champions of rural issues and rural Canada.”
