Why did the federal ag minister adopt the farm lobby’s terminology, give them something they didn’t want and then say he was meeting their demands?
by BARRY WILSON
The oddest thing about the federal government’s $500 million, five-year “agri-flex” commitment in the January budget was its attempt to say it is something it isn’t.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz insisted that he was responding to farm lobby demands for federal funding of provincially designed programs.
He said the provinces were getting what they requested. But that was only partially true – and not true in the way he was implying.