THIS just in from The Western Producer department of fearless
predictions: Agriculture Canada’s expensive series of national
consultations on future farm policy this spring will confirm the
government is on the right track.
Farmers will be shown to overwhelmingly support the five “Whitehorse
pillars” of environmental stewardship, food safety, innovation, sector
renewal and ending dependence on ad-hoc crisis subsidies.
Actually, that news flash wasn’t from the department of fearless
predictions at all.
It was from the desk of “we’ve seen these kinds of consultations before
Read Also
Topsy-turvy precipitation this year challenges crop predictions
Rainfall can vary dramatically over a short distance. Precipitation maps can’t catch all the deviations, but they do provide a broad perspective.
and the die is cast.”
Let’s be clear. The government is not spending millions of dollars for
a hastily arranged series of industry consultations with an open mind.
The questions being posed and the background information being provided
presuppose a response that the status quo is not working, change is
needed and these are good principles.
And even if farmers say “good idea but …” the aggregate report of
responses prepared for the department will emphasize the “good idea”
part and all but ignore the “but …”
To understand what is happening, it is important to remember the
history.
For many export-dependent sectors of agriculture, the market has not
returned a stable or predictable profit for years.
The federal government has tired of paying billions of dollars in
so-called passive supports with little political credit and no end in
sight.
A new team of Agriculture Canada bureaucrats ushered in under deputy
minister Samy Watson and some long-time departmental economists uneasy
with the old ways combined to come up with a new plan – moving the
industry “beyond crisis management.”
Cabinet bought in, if it meant an end to annual demands for more
support and a fence around future government liability to solve farm
income problems.
Planners incorporated long-standing food sector calls for more help in
bolstering environmental and food safety standards and images.
Watson was able to incorporate his beloved “life sciences revolution”
mantra under the guise of research and innovation. And bureaucrats
convinced under-financed, under-educated or aging farmers are a key
part of the problem were able to include their hobbyhorse with a
renewal plank.
It was a package of high-sounding principles. Provincial ministers
embraced it in Whitehorse last June and then many farm leaders began to
promote it as the way ahead.
Ottawa took that as a green light, began to put the meat on the
Whitehorse bones and suddenly found provinces and farmers balking.
“We can’t dream only of the long-term while foreign subsidies kill us
in the short term.”
“We didn’t think the Whitehorse principle would look like that in
reality.”
“We haven’t been consulted.”
So agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief has promised more flexibility, a
more measured pace with the provinces and a national consultation with
the industry and society.
It does not mean GPC International has been hired to assess whether
Ottawa is on the right track.
As with the Charlottetown Accord “consultations” of a decade ago, the
process under way now is to find a way to legitimize going down the
path Ottawa has chosen.
