Jessica George
In terms of protecting agricultural producers in Rainy River District, the four local candidates in the upcoming federal election shared their views on the best way to ensure the survival and the future of such a major part of the economy here.
Incumbent Liberal candidate Ken Boshcoff believes the best way to protect local farmers and producers is by ensuring every issue that comes up is dealt with front and centre within the federal agricultural committee.
He claimed this is something he has proven time and time again that he can achieve because of his own interests, knowledge, and connections within the industry.
With the issues front and centre, Boshcoff argues the best solutions can be found swiftly.
Conservative candidate Richard Neumann feels the best way to protect the agriculture community is to have it well-represented within caucus.
“Folks who have an agricultural background, and I’ll be straight up, I don’t, we have a lot of voices and a lot of ears plugged in to the issues related to those communities, so I believe that when it comes to issues that touch farmers and touch the agricultural community, those issues very quickly come to the fore in the Conservative caucus,” he remarked.
“Further, there is a very strong desire and impetus to solve those issues quickly,” added Neumann, noting the Conservative party has many rural representatives (more than most as far as he knows) who know the issues and have great resolve when it comes to them.
Both Boshcoff and Neumann feel they have the advantage when it comes to having the means to know what to do when an agricultural issue arises.
Meanwhile, both NDP candidate John Rafferty and Russ Aegard of the Greens believe the only way to ensure the viability of farmers and their produce is to tackle the growing issue of giant agri-businesses and turn the focus back on local.
“For centuries, family farms have been the foundation of our society and economy, but over the last five decades we’ve shifted from small family farms to giant agri-businesses, which is something that we at the Green Party are completely against,” Aegard stressed.
“The problem with giant agri-businesses is when you start to see these health problems that are starting to come out in our food system, you are starting to see generations of genetically-modified foods, which don’t even allow the rights to farmers to grow their own food anymore,” he noted.
“Most of the time, we see farmers having to do something else in order to survive. For example, someone who lives on my road is a farmer and he’s had to go and cut wood because there wasn’t enough money to keep the family farm going, and this is a shame that these are the people who contribute to our food supply and, not only that, contribute to our healthy food supply.
“We’re treating them like they are not worth the respect that is due to them,” Aegard argued.
“As you know, many farmers work off-farm to try to make ends meet,” echoed Rafferty. “In fact, farm families in Rainy River have endured the worst two years on record for farm income and we recognize that a long-term commitment is needed to restore Canadian agriculture—to sustainability.”
He indicated this downturn is a result of large agri-businesses.
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In working for the future and for change, the Liberal party has introduced a platform that encompasses both recognizing the emerging “green” economy and buying locally.
Boshcoff revealed the majority of the movements made by the Liberals in regards to farming are directly a result of the Thunder Bay-Rainy River riding and the issues it has presented to him personally.
He indicated the reason there is a national campaign platform on the issues in agriculture are a direct result of Rainy River District farmers and their input.
It’s been announced there would be a $400-million Emissions Reduction Credit “that would be available to farms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and a $259-million Green Farms Fund “to help farmers invest in energy-efficient technology and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.”
There also would be a $564-million Regional Flexibility Fund.
“This new fund reflects the views of many farmers in our riding,” noted Boshcoff.
“Canada-wide programs often don’t capture the unique challenges and needs across the provinces,” he added. “The Regional Flexibility Fund will allow farmers in each of the regions to come up with strategies that are right for them.”
Other aspects of the Liberal platform include the “Buy Canada” notion, which stresses the importance of buying local, planning a review on freight rates to ensure fair market value for the producer and the consumer, as well as aiming to start up disaster relief programs.
Although many aspects of the platform are underway already, disaster relief is still at the drawing board.
“I have been involved in [finding disaster relief programs] front and centre but the big problem is with the federal minister of agriculture who has been very difficult to work with,” Boshcoff remarked.
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The NDP platform relies on the cornerstone, “Made in Canada,” revealed Rafferty, adding the platform has not been fully released anywhere else yet.
Rafferty is committed to developing risk management programs to ensure there is a “standby capacity to deliver assistance to farmers in Rainy River, establishing a permanent farm communities emergency support fund, and providing assistance outside the normally budgeted assistance.”
Next, he, along with his party, believe it is time to restore market stability. They look to do this by countering the agri-business market by developing producer-run co-operatives.
This will combat the corporate giants, Rafferty assured.
Other directives include:
•food safety;
•value-added processing;
•investment, research, and development into organic production;
•working against terminator seeds and ensuring that farmers will keep their rights to reusing their own seed; and
•making a committed step to encouraging urban communities (like Fort Frances) to develop food distribution links to open the market up more widely.
Rafferty also is looking towards the future of the farming industry, and looking to implement incentives that will encourage farming as a career and will make it possible for those youth who may be interested but do not have access to a family farm.
“People in the Rainy River District are farmers because they love farming—so we want to help them farm,” enthused Rafferty.
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Aegard’s platform under the Green Party is three-fold.
The first aspect is to implement a shift away from biotechnology and focus on organic food production. He stressed the need for a healthy food supply is climbing as people are more an more aware of their health.
The second track is to incorporate the right of farm workers to earn a living wage and have safe working conditions. This includes making sure that farm support payments are farm-based and not production-based so as to encourage more small farms and family business.
Lastly, they are pushing the promotion of local foods by making a motion that larger food suppliers create shelf space for local products.
Basic undercurrents to these larger themes are reducing the “red tape and regulations” for local growers, as well as altering Canada’s business risk management program to help farmers cope with disasters.
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Neumann’s Conservative platform in regards to agricultural issues provides a strong point for implementing disaster relief programs.
“Farmers, more than perhaps almost any other occupation out there, are greatly affected in changing weather patterns,” he noted.
“The thing that we need to recognize is that it does appear that over the last decade or so, the severity of the weather patterns and the storms seem to be more severe but more narrowly focused,” he explained.
“That means that we need to redefine how we view a disaster as qualifying for federal aid.
“You know, when you’ve got a big messy low front coming through and it hits an entire area and it causes wide scale flooding in southern Manitoba, affecting thousands of farmers and is really taking a bite out of the national agricultural economy, it easy to say, ‘Whoa! Holy mackerel! We’ve got to do something and jump in here.’
“But when the effect is more focused and it effects a more narrow body of farmers, but with equally or more devastating effects, we need to be able to jump in in those circumstances, as well,” Neumann stressed, noting he has a history in insurance that will make him a prime candidate for developing one of these types of programs.
“We need to have some feet on the ground, we need to identify a qualifying disaster, a qualifying situation, and say, ‘Okay, this situation we don’t have to wait around for all of the numbers to be added up, for all of the data to come in, before understanding that this situation is going to qualify for federal aid.’
“Once the determining factor qualifies it for federal aid, then we need to get an advance payment out to those folks so they can at least survive long enough so that they can recover and receive the full amount of the aid that they could be entitled to,” Neumann stressed.
Other aspects of the Conservative platform include:
•encouraging local markets and the sale of local foods;
•creating a demand for local food in order to create competition with the cheaper, mass-produced produce found in supermarkets; and
•implementing a strong food inspection regime to ensure that food diseases are not spread while ensuring that producers are not overly restricted by unnecessary regulation.
