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Federal election is over, now what for agriculture?

Ahead of the Heard

Conservatives and NDP supporters have been celebrating the election results, but only one party won the big prize. The winning Conservatives are now finally in a position to force through their ideological goals that were thwarted by a minority parliament for the past five years. For agriculture that will be the Conservative promise to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) or at least to reduce its powers to start its slow death. Astute CWB employees would be wise to start sending out their resumes as the CWB’s days would now seem to be numbered. There may a bit of a respite as dealing with the CWB may not be a priority, being the Conservative government has a big hit list of other issues.

On the whole, the Conservative party platform didn’t have a lot of new agriculture policies so for now it is business as usual. That reflects more the power of the entrenched bureaucrats in the ag department, than any competent Conservative party policy. For example, in past elections the Conservatives promised to completely overhaul and change agriculture support programs. Once in power, the only thing they really changed were the names of the programs, senior bureaucrats won the day.

The fate of federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz will soon be decided when the prime minister announces his new cabinet. There is no reason to believe that he won’t be reappointed. Although, the prime minister may want to reward Ontario for providing him with so many new Conservative MPs, many of them from rural areas. Ritz is from Saskatchewan, which has been a Conservative bastion, that province could be safely ignored in favour of the more politically-fickle Ontario. However, Ritz has kept himself out of trouble and been a loyal party soldier. He has worked hard for the free trade side of agriculture working tirelessly to open new markets for Canadian ag exports. For the supply management side, he has at least not openly threatened to eliminate them - but those folks remain very suspicious of his true motives, especially now that the Conservatives have a majority.

That may soon come to light at the ongoing EU and WTO trade talks if the Canadian government suddenly changes their position on protecting supply managed commodities at the trade level. The expectation is that the feds will throw the CWB under the bus if needed. The national dairy and poultry boards would be wise to crank up their lobbying machinery especially towards Ontario Conservative MPs being Quebec’s influence on Conservative party fortunes have been greatly diminished by this election. The best supply-management can hope for is that this government will focus all its energies on beating up the CWB and forget about them.

There is one agency that desperately could use an overhaul and that would be the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Its power and arrogance have long gone unchecked and its bureaucrats need to come under serious government oversight. With a majority, the Conservative government should have the courage and political power to slap this agency down. The CFIA has cost the livestock industry, in particular, billions of dollars in extra unnecessary regulatory costs. This situation reached new heights of political absurdity when, rather than control the CFIA’s regulatory excesses, the federal government began subsidizing meat processors to offset those excesses – taxpayers should be outraged.

The plus side to a Conservative majority is that the GM issue will be off the table. The NDP opposition with their Liberal and now Green party allies will probably make attempts to revive the issue over the next few years, but Conservative majorities at the committee level would stop those insane initiatives in their tracks. Perhaps this new political situation will also send a message to Agriculture Canada bureaucrats that they need to curb their enthusiasm and promotion of organic agriculture. Their efforts and financial support for that dubious type of production far exceeds any real benefits to the majority of Canadian farmers and ranchers who already produce safe and wholesome food products.

Probably the best we can hope for is that the new or reappointed federal Agriculture Minister stays out of mischief by spending most of his time outside the country promoting Canadian food exports. No doubt supporters of the Canadian Wheat Board will be hoping for such a work plan.