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By Alice McFarlane

Federal Election

Farmers ponder future with minority government

Oct 21, 2019 | 11:54 PM

Farmers will have a lot to absorb with the election of a Liberal minority government.

Glaslyn area farmer Bernie McClean spoke to farmnewsNOW from his grain truck as he still has 10 per cent of his crop left to combine. McClean is also the chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA).

He said farmers are upset about the carbon tax as they fired up their grain dryers and received their first natural gas bill.

“It’s anecdotal on Twitter, I’ve seen some of the total costs on some of these bills was including service or delivery of the gas at 16 per cent of the total amount of the bill. The percentage based on just the gas itself was higher at 40 per cent. So its a substantial cost,” McClean said.

The CCGA will continue to lobby the federal government on four priorities. McClean said getting access to the Chinese market again is important.

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“That’s a very important export market. Domestically we can get into the biofuels market having an increase in the renewable fuel content being able to use canola as a feed stock. That’s a win-win for Canada,” McClean said.

“With the difficult harvest we want to make sure there’s support for farmers with falling revenues and that relates to the business risk management programs that we have. Another priority is making sure the Pest Management Regulatory Agency is using science based decisions. We’re seeing the effect of the loss of neonics in the European Union and we advocate strongly on science based decisions.”

Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association (WCWGA) executive director Dave Quist agreed some of these issues will have an impact on the day to day life of farmers and the long term outlook. But it’s not all bad news.

“Good things have some from minority parliaments in the past. If there are certain issues that all the parties agree to then its easier to find consensus and move that through,” Quist said. “Most of the parties have said they want to update the Grain Act and that would have great impacts on the farming community.”

“The WCWGA is prepared to work with whoever is in power and whatever balance of power that may be as well. When we go to Ottawa to talk we ensure that we are meeting with all the parties if they are available to speak with us,” Quist said.

Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) President and Regina area farmer Todd Lewis said his groups’ lobby effort will continue.

“We speak to all of the parties down in Ottawa. When we make a trip to Ottawa we make time to be sure to speak to both opposition and government members and certainly our Saskatchewan MP’s are open to discussion at anytime,” Lewis said.

“In the case of a minority government it will be a different style of lobby. At the same time, we’ve been through it before and it’s something that we can manage. It’s really going to be hard to know the details like who is going to be the ag minister. All of those issues are just something that will come before us over the late fall and winter.”

Prince Albert area farmer and rancher Tim Oleksyn wasn’t as optimistic.

“For lack of a better word, it neuters any ability for us to move forward with issues. It absolutely brings things to a discussion, there are more complexities in that,” Oleksyn told farmnewsNOW. “Everybody is holding what they want to call a power card. It just comes to a standstill and doesn’t get outside of the discussion within government.”

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF