WHISTLER, B.C. – Federal-provincial agriculture ministers’ meetings are a bit like cabinet meetings or family conferences – no matter how close to fisticuffs they came in private, the players tend to walk out later proclaiming unity
and camaraderie.
So it was last week when ministers met in this B.C. ski resort and tourist town.
An hour before the end of the meeting, some provincial ministers were predicting there would be no deal even on principles for the next generation of programming.
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There were too many tensions, too much bad blood and too many disagreements.
Show time arrived and there they all were, proclaiming great progress and
agreement in principle.
Of course, that papered over the fact that there remain bitter disagreements between some provinces and Ottawa and even between provinces on many details.
And slapping a new name on a dysfunctional margin based support program, even if its comforting new name is AgriStability, does not mean it will work any better if sectors are going through a period of stagnation and declining margins.
The premise and promise of this new agricultural policy framework – excuse me, Growing Forward – is that farmers are generally heading into prosperous times when either they will not need as much support or these good years will build up their margin in the historic average formula for years when income declines.
As veterans of the farm community can attest, seemingly endless prosperity can turn on a dime, never mind that predictions of a brave new world of flush farmers are based on less than a year of rising grain prices.
Hog industry players might have a different view.
But let’s return to the dynamic of the federal-provincial meeting.
After a year of relatively cordial relations between congenial if strong-willed federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl and his provincial counterparts, this meeting clearly marked a shift in the relationship.
Several provinces showed up with growing resentment over what they see as heavy-handedness by the Conservative government, a take-it-or-leave-it attitude on many policy files and a tendency for the federal government to make funding announcements unbeknownst to the provinces that then create farmer pressure on provinces to put money into programs they had no hand in designing.
Outside the meeting, Saskatchewan’s Mark Wartman said many provinces were “pushing back” because they were tired of being pushed around by Ottawa.
The provinces share the agriculture jurisdiction, he said. Many feel Ottawa and Strahl do not respect the expertise and needs of provincial ministers. He accused Strahl and the Conservatives of using bully tactics.
Ontario’s Leona Dombrowsky, also frustrated by Ottawa resistance to companion programs and its tendency to make unilateral program announcements, said afterward Strahl would have no doubt that provincial ministers have a right to insist on recognition of their issues.
It was a tough, tense meeting with more to come, because governments are in the process of designing programs that will serve or fail farmers until 2013. Because they share a constitutional responsibility, the two levels of government have no choice but to dance.
So after the spat in the car on the way to the party, they emerge with smiles and professions of congeniality.
But as in most families, the spats and the issues are not soon forgotten.
