(Twitter/@SARM_Voice)

By Alice McFarlane

SARM Mid-Term Convention

SARM convention to highlight carbon tax, AgriRecovery

Nov 8, 2019 | 5:00 PM

The difficult harvest will be on the minds of councillors when they meet in Regina for the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) mid-term convention.

SARM President Ray Orb said farmers still have crop in the field, the poor fall weather reduced crop quality and there are increased costs in grain drying.

He said they need to convince senior governments that farmers need extra help through the AgriRecovery program.

“We’ll be asking if there is something they can do through AgriRecovery because of the current conditions. I think about how it will be spring when the crop is taken off. Farmers are looking at all kinds of alternative uses for some of the crop that can’t be used for grain production,” Orb said. “We’re hoping that Ottawa listens, and the province will need to be part of that request as well, to issue some kind of help for farmers that have a lot of crop in their fields and they don’t have any income because they’re relying on those crops to pay the bills.”

Orb sent a request to speak to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about some of these rural concerns. He is still waiting for that phone call.

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“We know he was talking to big city mayors in Western Canada and we felt it was time for the prime minister to phone some of the rural organizations like SARM. So I’m waiting for my call and I have a list of questions I’m ready to ask him,” he said. “Also I want to ask him what he intends to do with the carbon tax. We all know this unfairly imposed tax is really hurting rural Saskatchewan and affecting farmers. One example is the carbon tax on the fuel used for drying grain.”

Orb said he also has questions about when the Trans Mountain Pipeline will be built as well as the equalization payment formula.

The SARM mid-term convention will draw about 1,000 RM representatives to Regina Wednesday and Thursday.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF