Federal budget addresses rural broadband, agricultural research

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

by JIM ALGIE

New money for rural broadband and for research within both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada provide agricultural highlights for the first federal budget under Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But the budget and supporting documents filed Tuesday by Finance Minister Bill Morneau also avoided dependable advice about government intentions in key areas of agricultural policy, notably trade and the future of supply management. Reaction among farm groups has been mixed.

Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) issued a stark critique of what it described as a “disappointing” budget. A March 22 statement posted to the agency’s website maintains the lack of clear policy in the budget or the government’s first throne speech indicated “the issues impacting the people who feed our nation are not a high priority for the government.”

DFC vice-president Reint-Jan Dykstra, who farms in New Brunswick, amplified the criticism in an interview, Thursday. The budget generally includes nothing for agriculture, Dykstra said by phone from the Toronto airport where he awaited a flight home to Moncton.

“We are a large part of the GDP of Canada and we have been overlooked in the budget,” Dykstra said. “There’s nothing in it for us, nothing, zip, zero.”

Opposition party agriculture critics have expressed similar criticisms.

Conservative critic Chris Warkentin, MP for the Alberta riding of Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, said the budget contained “absolutely no substantive details or new changes that will benefit Canadian farm families.”

“This budget is a tangible demonstration of the Liberal government’s fiscal mismanagement, and effectively serves as a ‘slap-in-the-face’ to the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector,” Warkentin’s statement said. “The Finance Minister seems to have found money for everything else but our hardworking farm families.”

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay defended the budget in a CBC Prince Edward Island interview, Wednesday. He cited specifically $70 million in new spending for agricultural programs and the $500 million for rural broadband communications.

“Not being connected is an awful negative factor to any industry and of course with the agriculture . . . believe it or not, there are contracts lost because of these things,” MacAulay told the CBC.

Grain Growers of Canada applauded continued funding for existing programs and increased funding for research and food safety. Grain Growers President Gary Stanford, who farms near Magrath, Alberta, said in a statement published on the organization’s website he’s encouraged “to see the federal government is committed to stable funding for the existing agricultural framework, and is willing to make increased investments in research and food safety.”

Canadian Federation of Agriculture President Ron Bonnett issued a two-sided budget reaction to what the federation statement described as the government’s “modest investments for Canadian Agriculture.” On the one hand, Bonnett criticized the budget’s lack of expected advice about compensation for trade-affected supply-managed sectors and recommended tax measures to simplify intergenerational farm transfers.

On the other hand, the federation president praised spending plans for new research capacity, particularly for genomics, as well as new spending on rural broadband, food safety and climate change adaptations with agricultural benefits. Broadband references come in the budget under the title “Improving Access for Rural Communities to the Digital Economy.”

The document proposes an investment of “up to $500 million over five years” to increase high speed broadband coverage beginning in 2016/17 “for a new program to extend and enhance broadband service in rural and remote communities.”

President Debi Daviau of the Professional Institute of the Public Sector of Canada underlined what the institute described as “a turning point after six years of program cuts” to federal research, including that done by scientists employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Daviau’s statement referred particularly to “substantial reinvestment” in “such cash-strapped departments as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.”

Budget documents available online provide some details of a planned $30 million boost over six years to Ag Canada spending on genomics along with $41.5 million to rehabilitate research stations in five provinces, including Ontario. Projects of the non-profit Genome Canada agency will particularly benefit with $237.2 million this year to support genomics research across the country over the next six years, the budget says.

New Democratic Party agriculture critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau, MP for the Quebec riding of Berthier-Maskinongé, told an I-Politics reporter the budget raises questions about how the new research and food safety money is to be spent. She urged priorities be established before a joint meeting of provincial agriculture ministers expected in July.

As well, budget documents specifically earmark $38.5 million over two years to modernize food safety, particularly in areas of high risk domestic and imported food products. The money should also help improve food labelling and international food inspections, the budget said.

Government reports also include a general statement of support for existing Growing Forward Two programs jointly funded by federal and provincial governments at current levels. On trade issues, the budget acknowledges both the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA); but adds no new direction about government intentions.

The government “is committed to swift ratification” of the Canada-Europe deal and “continues to consult Canadians . . . on the merits of ratifying the TPP,” a section of text under the heading “Expanding Trade Opportunities,” says. However, the lack of firm advice either about timing or compensation measures for affected farmers are critical omissions, Dairy Farmers of Canada said. In its statement, the group cited particular problems which displace Canadian milk in the domestic marketplace: “lack of coherence” between Canadian border and food inspection officials enforcing Canada’s cheese standard as well as a problematic duty deferral program for imported dairy products.

Continued uncertainty about government intentions regarding the TPP, which clears the way for increased imports of supply-managed commodities to Canada, is one thing, Dairy Farmers’ Dykstra said Thursday. But new imports of as much as 17,700 tonnes of cheese under the European trade deal are expected to begin in 2017, and there’s still no word about compensation for affected Canadian farmers, he said.

“The government has had since October to get its legs underneath it a bit,” the Dairy Farmers vice-president said. “There’s nothing; not a word,” Dykstra said of budget references to CETA arrangements. “We’re going to have to talk to them a little bit more and may be a little bit more aggressive,” he said.

“We’re going to have to lean on them a little bit harder,” Dykstra said. BF