Ag leaders' debate tepid

Sunday, April 10, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s national agriculture leaders debate, carried live on the organization’s website Monday, highlighted the two solitude's if nothing else. If you are a unilingual English speaker, you missed a quarter of the debate because Bloc Québécois agriculture critic Andre Bellavance spoke only in French. If you speak French only, you were sidelined for 75 per cent of the discussion because the other three debaters spoke only in English. There was no on-line translation.

What we did get were a series of thoughtful questions from farmers from across the country on trade, business risk management, environmental sustainability, and food safety. Responses seemed largely scripted, there was little drama and there were no surprises.

The debaters were Bellavance, Gerry Ritz, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Wayne Easter, Liberal agriculture critic, NDP representative Pat Martin and Green Party agriculture representative Kate Storey.

If there was a spark in this debate, it was around free trade and supply management with everyone draping themselves in the supply management flag while spreading the blame for threats to supply management stemming from World Trade Organization negotiations.

While Ritz said the government had lost “wiggle room” in international trade negotiations because of commitments made by the Liberals during the Doha round of negotiations which began in 2001, Easter said the Liberals are the party of supply management. “We are the ones that brought in supply management. We’re the party of supply management and we support it strongly and we believe in supply management.”

The NDP’s Martin said Ritz’s attempts to shut down the Canadian Wheat Board are proof he does not support supply management. “You have spent the better part of your career trying to undermine and sabotage the Canadian Wheat Board,” Martin said. He said Ritz “expects” the WTO to “do your dirty work” and dismantle supply management in Canada.

Easter said if the Canadian Wheat Board goes, supply  management “wouldn’t be far behind.”

Ritz assured viewers, “We’ve always fully supported our supply management sector.” BF