Support for grain farmers in federal relief package, conspicuous by its absence

A grain farmer north west of Picture Butte, told LNN, “The export markets haven’t been that great since 2017, when growers lost 20 per cent to China, we’ve also lost $3.1 Billion to $4-Billion in sales to India because of trade tariffs and we’ve lost durum markets to Italy because of certain political moves.

Those are all issues the feds should have dealt with long ago. To add to the misery, there are low prices, reduced acces to world markets, and farmers are still dealing with the backlog from the CN Rail strike.

To make matters worse, the Picture Butte area farmer notes a lot of farmers in his region have been hit by drought or hail in the last three or four years.

“Obviously the farmers in central and northern Alberta have crops still left out in the fields and they’re dealing with excess moisture – and there’s not a single mention of that from either the Agriculture minister in Alberta or federal Ag minister Mrs. Bibeau”.

When asked if he was being optimistic about planting his usual crops, he simply said, “I have to.”

He grows oil seeds like canola and flax, cereals such as durum and barley, and pulses – peas and lentils – primarily for export markets.

Our farmer was asked why do certain sectors of agriculture seem to get more attention? His response:

“They simply have a better lobby group – The Canadian Cattle Association has five or eight full time staff and same with the Dairy Supply management system in Ontario and Quebec – they have people in Ottawa lobbying the government all the time.

“I think grain farmers have this mentality of ‘We’ll just suck it up – we’ll keep working. You know what? It is what it is, but, eventually we can only take so much. Lots of guys are at the breaking point.”

“When my neighbors are getting money and I’m not – it’s like you and your neighbor in town were at the same job and they got money from the government to run their business and you didn’t.”

“The inequality in the subsidy program is so bad that it’s getting to the point where it’s out of hand.”

The Chairman of the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC), Jeff Nielssen agrees with the Picture Butte farmer.

“While we recognize the urgent challenges faced by other commodities, Tuesday’s announcement does nothing for grain farmers. This relief package offers no resolution to our existing issues, which result from long-standing market access challenges, rail blockades, and 2019’s harvest from hell.”

GGC has repeatedly stressed to the federal government that the AgriStability program is the most effective way to provide a safety net for all types of farmers who need it. Not only does it already have universal buy-in among the industry’s sectors, it provides targeted support to more efficiently address the challenges that the federal government has sought to remedy.

“Our Minister of Agriculture has already indicated that programs like AgriStability ‘need to be improved’, so why not start today?” added Nielsen. “The only way forward is to implement the changes that we have asked for to support Canadian farmers this year and help us to rebuild their businesses for a post-COVID-19 world.”

“We have provided the government with these proactive, practical measures to give farmers the tools they need to succeed,” said Nielsen.” We ask now that the federal government take a leadership role and decisively implement the concrete solutions that we have outlined.”

For over a year, GGC has asked that AgriStability receive an infusion of funds, which will allow the program to cover losses starting at 85 per cent of historical reference margins and eliminate of the Reference Margin Limit while encouraging farmers to retroactively enroll for 2019-20.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, the Prime Minister stated that, “We will be there for our agricultural producers because they are so important to all Canadians. The hard work they do and the support they give us all needs to be respected, reflected on, and mostly, supported.”

Neilssen and the GGC hope that the Prime Minister acts on his sentiments and does come through with support Canadian farmers.

by Dori Modney

Support for grain farmers in federal relief package, conspicuous by its absence

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