WHY IS Chuck Strahl still smiling?
In the 139-year history of the Canadian agriculture department, surely no minister has ever taken the portfolio in less auspicious times.
Strahl, a veteran British Columbia MP but a rookie to many of the agricultural files, faces a confluence of crises that would test the skills of someone steeped in the intricacies of the business and skilled at avoiding the landmines.
The appearance of any one of these issues would give any agriculture minister a headache. Yet the new minister faces a lethal medley of problem files that will test his reputation for coolness and grace under pressure. And there will be no time to ease into one of Ottawa’s largest and most complicated bureaucracies and policy areas.
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Many of them require a government signal of action almost immediately.
The list is long but consider just the top three urgent files that Strahl has inherited:
- Farm income: one of the first files handed to the new minister would have been the Agriculture Canada projection that in 2006, realized net farm income in Canada will fall 54 percent from the poor returns in 2005.
Three provinces – Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island – are expected to have negative realized net farm income (after depreciation) despite the assumption that close to $1.7 billion in program payments will flow to those provinces.
Strahl will learn that last year, despite a record $4.9 billion in payments, Canadian farm income was just $1.9 billion and in Saskatchewan and P.E.I., less than zero.
All this will put into context how little difference the promised $500 million in extra spending from the new Conservative government will make.
Spring seeding is weeks away in some parts of the country. Farmers and provinces are demanding help and waiting for Strahl to quickly revamp the flawed safety net program.
- Dairy sector income: a federal court ruling at the end of January opens the door for duty-free imports of highly concentrated milk protein products used in a variety of food products.
Dairy Farmers of Canada warns that imports outside supply management protection could displace $500 million in domestic milk sales. DFC president Jacques Laforge says the system is at stake as processors and food manufacturers gear up to cut costs with cheaper imported ingredients.
Strahl has virtually no power to reverse the decision but he is under immense pressure from farmers to take a controversial step at the World Trade Organization to create a new protective tariff line that would at least contain the damage.
The food industry opposes the proposal. There is little time to signal a direction.
- WTO talks: if there is any hope of salvaging a world trade agreement this year as promised in Hong Kong, detailed negotiations and compromises are needed within the next three months. Negotiators and the industry are looking to Strahl for leadership on some immensely complex and politically delicate issues.
It is a formidable list and doesn’t even touch ongoing damage from BSE border restrictions, pressure to move on Canadian Wheat Board commitments and myriad regular issues that make being agriculture minister more than a full-time job. The smile may become strained as this sinks in.
