Almost a year to the day a delegation of Saskatchewan politicians and farm leaders went to Ottawa seeking $1 billion in farm aid, Sinclair Harrison will try again.
The president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities said the situation has not improved since October 1999.
Input costs are up, commodity prices are down and there is no disaster assistance program in place for 2000, said Harrison.
“Fuel costs alone are as much as 60 percent higher now than they were at the beginning of 1999,” he said.
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Harrison was disappointed that farmers were not mentioned in the Oct. 18 federal mini-budget.
“There seems to be a lot of money available for some things, but none of it is being targeted towards relief for grain and oilseeds producers,” Harrison said “We think it will take at least $20 an acre to begin to address the problem.”
That’s $1 billion for Saskatchewan alone.
Last year when premier Roy Romanow led the delegation to Ottawa to ask for that much, the federal government produced new farm income forecasts suggesting the situation wouldn’t be as bad as the province believed and would not consider financial help beyond existing programs.
Last week, Harrison used federal projections to show realized net farm income is expected to be more than 100 percent below the five-year average during 2001-2003.
Harrison doesn’t know what kind of reception he will get this time, especially since agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief is out on the hustings.
He intends to meet with senior agriculture and transportation bureaucrats Oct. 30 and 31.
The trip may also raise the profile of agriculture during the election campaign, he said.
“We feel we might be able to influence parties when we get down there,” he said. “At election time things happen. Promises are made and hopefully promises are kept.”
Harrison suggested a larger delegation, similar to the one last fall, could make a return trip after the election.
He said supporting farmers is in the best interests of Canadian taxpayers.
“Our balance of trade depends largely on agricultural exports.”
Harrison said he may be joined on the trip by representatives from Keystone Agricultural Producers and Wild Rose Agricultural Producers.
SARM’s Ottawa lobbyist set up the trip but is now busy organizing prime minister Jean ChrŽtien’s campaign schedule.
