Policy Issues
Prime Minister’s Task Force Urges Fast Action on
Farm Issues
by Brenda Cassidy, OCPA Director of Communications
The final report
of the Prime Minister’s Caucus Task Force on Future Opportunities in Farming
has recently been released. Its title – Securing Agriculture’s Future:
Invest Today, Prosper Tomorrow – emphasizes the key messages contained in
the report. Canada’s farmers, the Task Force contends, provide more than
a reliable source of safe, high quality food: they also make significant contributions
to environmental sustainability and rural economic development. More effort is
needed, however, to ensure the sustainability of the sector and the wide range
of benefits it provides.
The Task Force, chaired by Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MP Bob Speller, recognizes
that many of the recommendations from their interim report (Spring, 2002) have
found expression within the Agricultural Policy Framework. However, the group
also expresses concern regarding farmers’ perception that they have been
excluded from providing meaningful input into the development of the APF to ensure
that it will meet their needs and the challenges they face.
The final report provides ten recommendations that are “designed to assure
the future health and prosperity of Canada’s agriculture and agri-food industry
and rural communities.” These recommendations, in the areas of sustainable
agriculture, rural economic development, market opportunities and agriculture/agri-food
policy, are intended to supplement the twenty-six recommendations provided in
the interim report.
Sustainability, according to the Task Force, must exist from a variety of perspectives
– environmental, financial and within a community context. The group calls
on the federal government to provide:
• increased investment in agricultural programs that have environmental benefits
• incentives for the construction and expansion of bio-fuel processing plants,
equalization of tax incentives among bio-fuels and funding for continued bio-fuel
research
• establishment of a national network of development agencies to build on
community assets and ensure rural economic growth
• flexibility in infrastructure spending in order to respond to the unique
needs of different communities and the disparities between urban and rural Canada
• elimination of legislative or other impediments to farmer-owned enterprises
• assistance in the identification and development of emerging market opportunities,
both domestic and international
• examination of enhanced marketing initiatives used in other jurisdictions
with a view to their potential adoption in Canada
• flexible program design and funding arrangements in recognition of the
diversity of farmers and the broad range of social, environmental and aesthetic
benefits they provide
• amendment of existing tax provisions to facilitate the intergenerational
transfer of farm assets
• regular reviews of the Agricultural Policy Framework to ensure that the
Framework’s components continue to meet the needs of all stakeholders.
Safety Nets
Proposals Questioned
In a letter to Prime Minister Chrétien appended to the report, Task Force
Chair Bob Speller cautions that there is significant concern within the farm
community that safety nets proposals offered under the APF “are unworkable
and more reflective of administrative simplicity, rather than of something that
would really help farmers.”
The report emphasizes the enormous diversity that characterizes Canada’s
agriculture industry and cautions that “it is virtually impossible to develop
a single program that will meet the needs of all farmers – all commodity
groups and farms of all sizes. Governments must be conscious of the different
needs of Canadian farmers and incorporate these varying requirements into program
and policy design.”
Specific recommendations regarding safety net programs were included in the
group’s interim report. They included:
• More attention needs to be paid by governments when developing safety
net programs to ensure that they respond to the needs of Canadian farmers by
providing more flexibility.
• The federal government [must] – at a minimum – maintain farm
safety net funding at its current level for the next five years to give some
certainty to growers.
• The government must also recognize that, in the short term, bridge funding
will be required and in some cases will need to be enhanced to respond to the
adverse and unpredictable effects of weather, markets and income fluctuations
due to factors beyond farmers’ control.
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada should work more closely with farmers
and rural accountants to design workable programs as well as the forms needed
to access funds.
An update of proposed safety net programming (Business Risk Management programs)
under the APF is provided elsewhere in this issue of the Ontario Corn Producer.
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