Federal election in the wind

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

With a non-confidence vote looming Friday against Canada’s Conservative minority government, promises made in yesterday’s budget towards agriculture will depend on who takes power after a federal election.

That was the message Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz delivered to reporters in a roundabout fashion during a teleconference Wednesday.

“At the end of the day, it depends what configuration the government comes back as,” Ritz said in the conference’s transcripts. He was responding to a question about how failure to pass the budget would affect proposed programs.

Ritz said the Conservative government has done a “tremendous job” working with industry on both innovation and markets. “But all of these budgetary items disappear, basically cease to exist until a government forms itself again, has a throne speech, then a budget and move forward.”

Ritz called an election “unnecessary” and said that it stood “in our road of moving forward when we’ve got that momentum on our side right now.”

If the Conservatives return to power, plans for agriculture listed in Tuesday’s budget will remain. “This is what industry is asking of us.”

During the teleconference, Ritz referred to advances made in trade negotiations with South Korea and mainland China. “We’re very, very close on the final ‘cross the Ts and dot the Is’,” he said.

He remained lukewarm about supporting Ontario commodity groups’ proposal for insurance-based risk management programs. “We’ve not been able to find where it’s actually worked for producers,” and the current suite of agricultural business risk programs is fully funded, he said. But he noted the Conservatives are “excited about the potential to move to insurance based type of business risk.”

Should there be a need for AgriStability or AgriRecovery in Ontario, “we’ll be there for them.”

Ritz also asserted that there were a number of other commodity groups in Ontario that were “thrilled” by the budget.

On Wednesday, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announced plans to move a non-confidence vote on Friday. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has found the Conservatives in contempt of Parliament alleging the minority government crossed the ethical line by not releasing information about spending estimates for fighter jets, prison changes and corporate tax cuts.

It’s expected MPs will vote on the budget the same day.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said Wednesday there’s still a possibility he’ll support the Conservatives’ budget if changes are made. BF