Reeve Ron Kurz thought he had an easy solution to the problem of designing a farm aid program that helps farmers who need it.
“Talk to Mr. Goodale and ask him to increase the price for grain and put it through the wheat board, instead of spending all this money on computers and space and people for the AIDA program,” said Kurz to Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister Clay Serby during the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention.
“It’s the price we need … a dollar or two more a bushel.”
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But Serby said even if that is a good idea, it won’t convince the federal government to give farmers more money.
“The mechanics are there to pay it,” said Serby.
“The issue is that the government has decided that in Canada they’re not going to provide the additional support that farmers require.”
Serby said structures such as the Canadian Wheat Board, freight rate adjustments, price conversion programs and safety nets have all been used in the past to help farmers.
The problem is that the government doesn’t want to help farmers.
The European Union and the United States “have decided that they are going to support their farmers, and they do that directly with direct payments to their farmers,” said Serby.
“In Canada, there’s been a decision made here that we’re not going to get the same support.”
Serby said that’s why provincial agriculture ministers and farm group leaders have to travel to Ottawa every year to lobby for aid.
At the SARM convention, some farmers attacked premier Lorne Calvert for not being more vocal when lobbying for more aid.
Calvert said his government has been working hard to get a better aid program designed. So far Saskat-chewan has not signed onto the federal government’s recent aid program.
However, Calvert said Saskatchewan was not refusing to participate. Rather it is negotiating with the federal government to ensure that any program Saskatchewan does take part in will help farmers who need it.
Serby, who is heading up the negotiations, said farmers need assistance and need it soon.
