Ron Bonnett didn’t take it well when he received confirmation that a federal government promise to support the slaughterhouse industry is a loan and not a grant.
The normally restrained first vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said he was furious.
“The budget documents, the minister’s comments after the budget, his comments to our convention never suggested this is a loan program,” he said.
“Betrayal might be too strong a word but a lot of farmers will now be looking at other government budget commitments and wondering. It is about honouring commitments.”
Read Also
Stacking Canada up on gene editing livestock
Canada may want to gauge how Argentina and other countries have approached gene editing in livestock and what that has meant for local innovation.
Bonnett, an Ontario cattle producer, said the industry was certain that federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and the Conservatives were promising a $50 million, three-year investment to increase slaughter capacity, particularly in areas now under-serviced, including Manitoba.
“The cost would have been minuscule,” he said. “Now it turns out it wasn’t true. I think you will see a lot of distrust from farmers about what the government is promising.”
He said the Jan. 27 budget promoted the fact that $550 million would be invested in new agricultural programming over the next five years.
It turns out $50 million is a loan program and $310 million of the new $500 million agricultural flexibility program comes from funds reallocated from already approved programs.
So in a $40 billion recession-era stimulus package that is flinging money at any hurting sector still moving, the multibillion-dollar agriculture industry receives $190 million in new spending over five years.
“That really is nothing,” said Bonnett.
However, his main concern is that many potential slaughter plant projects were looking for federal funding as the base for getting loans that would make new plants possible.
“A lot of them were counting on what they thought was a government promise of support to leverage loans,” he said.
“That is now not possible. If the government thinks that nickel and diming the industry is an appropriate strategy, I just don’t think this is helping the industry.”
On Jan. 27 in budget documents, the government said it would “invest” the money “to strengthen slaughterhouse capacity in various regions of the country to support the livestock sector.” As well, it promised “federal contributions to match private sector investments in sound business plans.”
As he sold the budget, Ritz never mentioned that Ottawa was offering credit.
“Our government is already delivering action on that file with 50 million new dollars to increase slaughter capacity across Canada,” he told the CFA annual meeting in late February.
“We have no intention of dumping that into the big three. This is to build capacity from coast to coast.”
Bonnett said that did not sound like an offer of loans.
