Low expectations await Canada's new ag minister

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The Liberals promised little for agriculture in the election campaign. Will Lawrence MacAulay, the oldest member of the cabinet and a veteran of 27 years in Parliament, prove to be more than just a caretaker?

by BARRY WILSON

It has been more than four decades since a new federal agriculture minister took office with so little expectation from farmers.

Since 1974, there has been the belief in some sectors of the industry that the new minister had an agenda – Eugene Whelan and John Wise on supply management and research, Don Mazankowski, Bill McKnight and Charlie Mayer on western issues, Ralph Goodale and Lyle Vanclief on trade and more stable funding, Bob Speller and Andy Mitchell on implementing Paul Martin's promise of a new relationship between Ottawa and farmers, and finally Chuck Strahl and Gerry Ritz with the promise of listening to the largest Conservative agricultural caucus in 50 years.

Lawrence MacAulay has none of those expectations weighing on him. The long-time, 69-year-old Prince Edward Island Liberal MP, 27 years in Parliament and a veteran of many cabinet positions since 1997, was named Canada's 33rd agriculture minister on Nov. 4 – 22 years to the day after being named solicitor general in 1993.

He was a P.E.I. farmer before launching his political career but has played little role in agricultural debates during his time in Parliament, usually eclipsed by fellow P.E.I. MP and former farm leader Wayne Easter. And MacAulay arrived in the office with few IOUs to the agricultural community.

In the recent federal election campaign, agricultural promises and profile were minimal, well below the radar screen.

The Liberals in particular offered little – $160 million over four years to an Agri-Food Value Added Investment Fund, $100 million over four years to agricultural research and $80 million over four years to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The party also promised a railroad pricing review and a re-assessment of the safety net cuts included in the Growing Forward 2 federal-provincial agreement that took effect in 2013 and is up for renewal by 2017.

But there was little apparent party interest in an activist agricultural agenda. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rarely spoke of the issue during the campaign and has shown little public interest or knowledge of the complicated modern agricultural sector, though he did photograph well at the Calgary Stampede wearing a cowboy hat.

So, as the oldest member of cabinet, MacAulay might properly be considered a caretaker for a portfolio that will be down the list of Trudeau government priorities.

He will have to deal with the beginning of negotiations on the next federal-provincial Growing Forward farm support program and, undoubtedly, will have to defend agricultural interests during cabinet discussions on climate change policy and the future of both the free trade deal with the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

But the lead ministers on those two files will be trade minister Chrystia Freeland from downtown Toronto and environment and climate change minister Catherine McKenna from downtown Ottawa. Other than reading the slogan "Farmers Feed Cities" as they drive from their downtown residences to their country cottages, neither has any obvious connection to agriculture.

An interesting early indication of agriculture's place in the Trudeau government hierarchy will be the composition of the Treasury Board cabinet committee that deals with finances and spending.

Former minister Gerry Ritz was the first agriculture minister appointed to that committee.

Will MacAulay be there? BF

Barry Wilson is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery specializing in agriculture.