Saskatchewan’s “flip-flopping” on the federal government’s long-term
agriculture policy isn’t flying with the provincial opposition.
Back in August agriculture minister Clay Serby said Saskatchewan would
sign the federal government’s long-term agriculture policy agreement. A
few weeks later he indicated that might not happen. But now he says it
definitely will.
“There’s no doubt that at the end of the day we’ll sign the agriculture
policy framework, I don’t think there’s any question about that. The
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issue is the timing around signing it.”
Saskatchewan Party agriculture critic Donna Harpauer said Serby “has
flipped and flopped” and now it’s time to put pen to paper because the
federal government won’t negotiate how the money is going to be spent
unless Saskatchewan signs the agreement.
“I think he should sign it and get to the table,” said Harpauer.
In late August Serby announced that the province would sign the
agreement. But in a Sept. 12 interview with the Western Producer he
said the province wouldn’t sign the document unless it got a bigger
portion of the federal dollars.
Serby insists he hasn’t flipped or flopped. He said his message has
been consistent – the province will sign the agreement but before it
does, he wants to try and negotiate a bigger share of the federal money
than the 22 percent it gets under the existing Fredericton formula.
He is negotiating for something closer to the 29 percent share of
federal funding that Saskatchewan received when Ottawa recently divvied
up the $600 million in short-term farm aid.
“We want to be clear that when we sign this agreement, that we’ve got
the best deal for Saskatchewan producers that we can get,” said Serby
during a Sept. 18 interview.
He said the federal government has committed $1.1 billion a year to
fund farm safety nets over the next five years and Saskatchewan wants
29 percent of that. Yet the minister is unwilling to face the
consequences of not signing the document.
“We can’t go into a new crop year without having a safety net program
because it just simply puts the province in huge liability. So we have
to have a new agreement before we head into a 2003 crop year and
onwards.”
Terry Hildebrandt, president of the Agricultural Producers Association
of Saskatchewan, is glad to hear the minister say those words. But he
agrees that the province needs more than a 22 percent cut of federal
dollars.
He is in Ottawa this week talking to other farm groups and federal
bureaucrats about how the $1.1 billion will be split up.
“We have a push on for demand-driven programs and no allocation, and
the feds seem to have some appetite to go there. Some of the provinces
of course want a specific allocation.”
Hildebrandt said Saskatchewan farmers would be happy with a program
that would see federal money go to where the need is the greatest
rather than a specific agreed upon amount.
Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have rejected similar ideas in
the past.
