by BETTER FARMING STAFF
Federal and provincial ministers of agriculture spent the morning of a day long conference in Toronto Friday discussing Business Risk Management program but could say little at the end of the day about progress made.
“I’m not going to commit to any specifics at this point. We’ve all got homework to do going back to our colleagues and our cabinets,” said Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz at an afternoon press conference. “We’ve always said the programs need to be bankable and predictable. They also need to be bankable and predictable for our treasury boards and our finance departments.”
Ritz said there will be another round of consultations with farm groups before the summer and will try to do programs that don’t drive countervail.
The ministers meet next, in early July, in Saskatoon. Carol Mitchell, the newly appointed minister of agriculture for Ontario gave assurances there was “progress going forward” on risk management. She says the next round of consultations will be give “concession farmers…a chance to say what their needs are now, and going into the future.” Ritz added that “any progress is always incremental. . . . governments always have (farmers) best interests at heart.”
Ritz is unfazed by complaints from producer organizations that only 120 hog producers across Canada have been eligible for a loan under the Hog Industry Loan Loss Reserve Program, which is backed by the federal government.
“We work on this on a case by case basis. We start to analyze where it didn’t work. I continue to get assurances from the banking sector that they are looking very seriously at every application. . . Of course the banks don’t want to own your hog farms either. I am quite buoyed by the work Farm Credit is doing.”
The weanling pig market appears to be picking up, he said and “there are a number of hog producers. . . in a wait and see attitude to ascertain where the market is going.” He said if a round table meeting in Guelph today hosted by the Liberal Party of Canada and billed as “bridging the rural-urban gap,” came up with usable ideas his government would look at them. “We always put farmers first,” he said. BF
Comments
“We always put farmers first,” He makes it sound like someone actually cares.........but in reality it means farmers (pork farmers in this case) get pushed off the cliff first. Don't count on this bunch of procrastinators for any help.
Ritz is building a legacy of a do nothing minister. His farm background is showing no insight and serves him no credibility at all. As a farmer that talks about bank-ability, timeliness and predictability he should stick to words he can actually understand.
He was right, the program offered up was poor, but as a leader what did he submit that would address the nation wide crisis of agriculture he has abandon?
With springs agricultural activities only a few weeks away he sees no rush to "work" on his file while parliament is parogued, still thinking July is timely.
To our farmer brothers in the west.... find something else on the bench there that can lead please. This guy is not Olympic, parliamentary, material at all. We would be better with a "business man representing agriculture" than a "farmer trying to do business" he does not understand.
That only 120 hog producers across Canada have been eligible for a loan under this program, is a vivid demonstration of the "greater-fool" theory, meaning that it's hard to tell if 120 producers are the greater fools for borrowing money under this program, or the lenders for lending the money.
My industry sources tell me lending institutions, particularly the Credit Unions, have avoided this program like the plague because under present economic conditions, there's no way borrowers can ever repay the loans. In addition, my industry sources tell me the only reason Farm Credit is even visible at all, is because of political jawboning.
Recently Ritz dropped $1.22 million onto the dairy genetics industry to increase the exports of dairy genetics - this money would have had a lot more impact if spent helping hog farmers.
Ontario farm organizations have worked together to create a program that is beneficial to all non-supply managed commodities yet they are pretty much ignored. The costs of this program are probabaly far less than the money wasted everytime a new government gets elected and decides to "create" a new program. Every new aid program seems to only serve as a job protection program for ministry staff instead of benefitting those it is supposed to assist.
It appears obvious to me that the new hog programs came out of the same Ag Policy Factory that invented that program formerly known as CAIS. Underlying fundimentals are the same. That Ag Policy Factory is obviously extremely resistant to helping farmers in the way we all know is necessary. Policy makers obviously think the type of support we need is the wrong thing to do. Until we can change this wrong headed Ag Policy idea held by those policy makers, we will never get the BRM programs we need. Instead of being honest with farmers Ritz will just discuss the RMP idea to death.
Post new comment