HOW did it get to this again? Is it something about agriculture
minister Lyle Vanclief’s don’t-push-me-around style, something about
the nature of federal-provincial relations in general, something about
the provinces or something about the farm safety net issue itself?
It may be part of all of the above but whatever the cause, another
federal-provincial battle is brewing over how to design farm safety
nets.
Farmers are caught in the middle.
Almost five months after Vanclief and prime minister Jean Chrétien
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proclaimed a brave new world for farmers with a splashy $5.2 billion,
six-year funding announcement, farmers remain uncertain about what the
details of that brave new world will look like.
More than four months after Vanclief and seven provincial agriculture
ministers gathered in a grand Halifax hall to sign the agricultural
policy framework that was supposed to breathe life into the theory of
the brave new world, provinces and Ottawa have yet to figure out the
implications.
And three provinces remain outside the discussions, still refusing to
sign the accord.
In the middle are farmers, watching time march on, wondering what crop
insurance, net income stabilization and income support programs will
look like in 2003 and realizing there are precious few months left
before they need to know.
Their leaders are beginning to plead that governments simply extend
existing programs for another year, flawed as they are. But the dynamic
increasingly seems to be a tug-of-war between Ottawa and the provinces.
Vanclief says his officials continue to consult with the APF provinces
about program details and he is sure details will soon be available.
But fresh from Ottawa’s unilateral decision to distribute its $600
million transition fund this year through NISA accounts over the
protests of provinces and farm groups, provincial ministers are
suspicious that they are about to get some take-it-or-leave-it
proposals from Ottawa.
It hasn’t helped that Ottawa has been trying to preserve national
standards while negotiating individually with each province.
There also are growing arguments that Ottawa’s proposal to do more with
the same amount of money during the next five years effectively means
less farm support.
Provinces suggested a federal-provincial meeting for late November to
talk about details. Vanclief and his deputy minister Samy Watson nixed
the idea.
An Ontario government official says the province is nervous about
getting “blind-sided” by a federal program outline that comes too late
to change before programs need to be offered to farmers.
It is difficult not to suspect that a good part of the problem is the
testy relationship between the federal minister and some of his senior
bureaucrats with their provincial counterparts.
It is an odd thing. When Vanclief meets with provincial ministers,
there is much conviviality and talk of flexibility, co-operation and
common purpose.
Then the decisions get sent to officials to translate into words and
problems begin.
The provincial ministers go to Vanclief looking for compromise and find
that he is in no mood for turning.
It seems like a pattern.
