VICTORIA, B.C. – Canada’s most powerful farm lobby has strengthened its opposition to the government’s cost recovery scheme.
Farmer delegates to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting here last week said they won’t sit idly while bureaucrats who don’t understand the business of farming step up user fees and stiffen regulations.
“Government said ‘not only are you going to have to pick up an increasing burden of those costs and not only do we admit that we don’t have a system where you’re actually going to sit down at the table with us and determine how we’re going to do business in the future, but we’re going to carry on as usual with us knowing best and giving you part of the bill,’ ” said CFA president Jack Wilkinson.
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“When we said that was absolutely unacceptable it was surprising to me there was a whole bunch of shocked and appalled people down in Ottawa wondering what in the hell was going on with these farmers who actually thought they should have a say in the future of the way the agriculture industry is going to be developed.”
Farmers are willing to pay their fair share to reduce the country’s debt, but in some cases cost recovery has turned into income generation and that has to stop, Wilkinson said.
“The efficiencies the government promised to strive for when it first moved towards user fees have never been reached, if even attempted.”
Wilkinson re-affirmed the federation’s outright rejection to user pay without user say. He vowed to push harder for a system accountable to farmers instead of the bureaucrats working within it.
“Quite frankly, it would be my goal in life to see some of these people that are working in government have lateral transfers to other departments. I’m told there’s still 26,000 early retirement packages available and where we can help out we should feel an obligation to do so.”
Prince Edward Island Liberal MP Wayne Easter said he understands the frustration farm organizations face.
“The bureaucracy or the system in this country, and I think worse than anywhere else in the industrialized world, has somehow taken on a life of its own and many of us even within the governing party really wonder sometimes are we masters of our own house,” Easter said during a panel at the federation’s meeting.
Departments seem to prefer to charge fees rather than reduce costs. That worries David Hobson of the Canadian Horticultural Council.
“As some people have said, you don’t send a hog to slaughter itself,” he told the meeting.
Hobson called on Ottawa to slow its cost recovery until it assesses the impact on the agriculture sector in Canada.
“We’re willing to pay for some services on a fair and equitable basis, but we do not want to be left in a position where we cannot compete with our American trading partners.”
Prairie Pools Inc. representative Gordon Pugh said costs recovered by prairie producers through loss of transport subsidies and reduced safety net support leaves prairie farmers more vulnerable to a market downturn.
“As farmers and grain companies we’re trying to create as efficient (a) system as we can on the Prairies,” Pugh said. “We’re hoping for the full participation of government but unfortunately we’re seeing quite the reverse trend.”
In a Feb. 26 speech, Goodale told the meeting cost recovery is not going away, but admitted farmers should have more say in how costs are applied to the industry.
