Address
to the
Notes for an address by the Hon. Stephen Harper,
P.C., M.P.
Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Leader of the Official Opposition
Yorkton, Saskatchewan
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Check Against Delivery
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you to my colleague in the House of Commons, Garry Breitkreuz. At the outset of my remarks, I want to praise and congratulate Garry.
Besides being the Conservative Member of Parliament for
Yorkton-Melville, Garry is native son of
And Garry has not only been a faithful participant in the Agriculture Forum, but a consistent defender of the needs of the agricultural community.
Garry is also one of the most principled individuals I have ever met in politics.
In particular, Garry has worked hard and long, often subjected to many attacks, in becoming known in Ottawa and throughout Canada as the most outspoken and effective critic of the federal government’s wasteful and useless gun registry.
And I can tell you, Garry, your fellow farmers and rural Canadians, that a Conservative government will stop shovelling millions in this Liberal pet-project, will focus on the real needs of farmers and the real need to fight crime, and will scrap the gun-registry boondoogle.
It is always a pleasure for me to meet with members of
This Forum is a wonderful opportunity for members of the agricultural community to exchange ideas on agriculture issues and I look forward to receiving your questions, suggestions and observations in a few minutes.
First, I would like to say a few words on the Conservative vision of Canadian agriculture.
The Conservative Party cares deeply about agriculture
because this party has deep roots throughout rural
In my own case, my mother and my wife grew up on farms and both their families still have relations in the business.
So I’ve spent a fair bit of time at family farms in my life.
And let me just say there is nothing like the family farm – no institution that so thoroughly represents all the values that built this country – hard work, enterprise, cooperation, community and, of course, family itself.
And, for the sake of our country, it is important that this institution play a role in our future, just as it has in our history.
Of course, my connections with farming are slight compared to many of my colleagues who represent rural areas and who are often farmers themselves.
And this makes a huge difference.
For example, since the new Parliament has begun, we have asked more questions, given more speeches, spent more time in the House of Commons on agricultural issues than all the other parties combined.
I am very proud of the fact that we put this kind of priority on agriculture and have pressed the government on several key issues.
Obviously highest on our agenda has been the crisis in the cattle industry.
From day one we have pressed the government in the House on the BSE crisis. And we have gone much farther. My colleagues have repeatedly put forward detailed proposals to deal with this issue.
As far back as 2003 I accompanied a number of Conservative
MPs who went to
You will recall that, in the last election, the Liberal government had a pretty simple answer to this problem – they simply assured farmers the border would be open by the end of the summer.
Of course, it was a simple answer, just not a true one. We did not believe it and the election results made clear that producers didn’t believe it either.
So beginning only days after the election, our senior critics for agriculture, Gerry Ritz and Diane Finley, started pressing for an immediate, emergency debate on the issue of B.S.E.
And when the Prime Minister finally recalled Parliament in October, we put forward constructive suggestions for ending this crisis and supporting our farmers.
Now of course, we have had our hopes raised that the border really will be open soon. And I just hope with some recent bad news that the government hasn’t screwed it up.
We are of course greatly relieved that the border will soon be open. We pray that what looks like the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t turn out to be the light at the bottom of the shaft.
But, in any case, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot just roll up our sleeves, pat ourselves on the back, as the Liberals would like to do, and otherwise hope that this episode gets buried and forgotten.
The economic effects of this crisis has been devastating. Unknown numbers of livestock producers have been foreclosed on; some have completely pulled out, salvaging what they could.
Others are faced with low land values and cannot bear to cut their losses.
Canadian cattle producers have historically required very little government support and thrived in unfettered, free markets.
But through circumstances beyond their control, the beef industry needs help now.
There remains a lot to be done to restore stability and predictability to the cattle industry and to repair the damages inflicted by this crisis.
The biggest and most pressing issue, in my judgment, is the need for cull cow programs. I was rather surprised when the Liberals voted against this in the House just before Christmas, because no matter how smoothly things go from here on, the disposition of older cattle is an issue that absolutely most be addressed.
There are others. A bison set-aside should be put in place.
The Loan Loss Reserve must be topped off.
The need to increase
Appropriate tax incentives should be put in place.
I believe we should support producers who are involved in a
NAFTA Chapter 11 challenge with the
Obviously, we must immediately review the CAIS program.
I will talk about this a bit later as well. But the viability of CAIS for cattle and other ruminant producers must be carefully analyzed.
We believe a five-to-ten-year averaging of net income for stabilization purposes should replace the five-year Olympic formula.
There are longer term objectives we must also pursue. Let me just list them quickly:
Greater cooperation and regulatory harmonization with our major trading partners
Increased inter-provincial trade through harmonization of provincial meat inspection;
Consideration of 100 percent testing for export markets
after sufficient slaughter capacity has come online; and, finally, development
of world class BSE research in
In all of this discussion, we must also always keep in mind that the BSE crisis extended far beyond the beef industry: its effects were felt by other industries, dairy producers, cow-calf producers, feedlots, producers of other ruminants and packing plants.
Let me just also quickly review a number of other key parts of the agricultural portfolio.
In doing so, I realize I can’t really do justice to the
complexity of agriculture in a few minutes. Our party recognizes that various
regions of
That is why our agricultural policy should not be a one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic scheme.
First, we believe in farm safety nets. We will stand up for our farmers and we will insist that they get adequate support and compensation when they face circumstances beyond their control – such as the killer frost that hit your community on August 20th or the BSE crisis.
We recognize that measures to provide enhanced support to
agriculture producers must not distort trade and must be consistent with
However, it is very obvious to us that producers cannot continue to shoulder the load alone in the face of continued pressures from global trade subsidies, weather and pests, as well as market distortions created by responses to B.S.E. and Avian flu.
It is all well and good to trade openly in food, but for
economic and security reasons
To sustain our primary producers, a Conservative government would implement a Whole Farm Production Insurance Program based on a ten-year average of value and production costs for that commodity.
The program would be funded one-third by the federal government, one-third by provincial governments, and one-third by the primary producers.
A separate, second level of support would only be required in extraordinary circumstances such as BSE when normal markets and market access collapse.
I believe we could also implement a “bankable” business risk program directed at primary producers and funded 100 percent by the federal government.
Unlike CAIS, this program would not require producer cash on deposit.
Such a cumulative fund would be established and maintained on an annual basis with mandatory annual review.
A Conservative government will also be dedicated to a comprehensive program of research and development targeting new and emerging markets throughout the world.
The modern global market is demanding new and innovative ways of producing and processing foodstuffs and, as in so many other industries, the best long term strategy for market security for Canadian producers is innovation.
Let me address the supply-managed sectors.
We want industries under the protection of supply management to remain viable.
We will always support the goal of supply management to deliver a high quality product to consumers for a fair price with a reasonable return to the producer.
I find it ironic that the Liberals continue to attack us on this issue.
I remind you that when the current government took office in 1993, it said it was inalterably committed to the status-quo in supply management.
Then it promptly negotiated away guarantees in the GATT,
altering the status quo forever. The Liberal government has long said that they
will support and defend
In the area of grains and oilseeds which, as you know, is not a supply-managed sector, let me just state once again that we want to give grain farmers the freedom to make their own marketing and transportation decisions and to voluntarily participate in producer organizations.
As you know, these sectors continue to be challenged by the international subsidy war.
We will support rules-based trading systems like NAFTA and
the WTO to promote free and fair trade, which, given our relatively small size,
we believe to be especially in the interests of countries like
To increase market access for Canadian agriculture and value added agri food products into foreign markets, we would support the phased reduction of all trade-distorting barriers and the elimination of all agriculture export subsidies.
But we will not leave our farmers on their own while this is unresolved.
We will also work to reduce barriers to trade between the provinces in the areas of agriculture and agri-food products.
Specifically, we would take action to ensure harmonized food inspection standards to ensure that provincially licensed meat plants can have market access to the provinces;
To remove federal products standards barriers to the bulk shipment trade of agricultural products across provincial barriers and to promote the harmonization of provincial precuts standards
Working with our provincial partners, we would work to renegotiate the Agreement on Internal Trade to end provincial exclusions, create a timely and binding dispute resolution mechanism, and allow greater mobility of workers.
If voluntary agreement cannot be achieved, we will consider
using the full weight of the federal constitutional authority over
inter-provincial trade to ensure that internal trade in goods and services
between provinces is at least as unrestricted as external trade with
jurisdictions in the
We will also work in partnership with the industry in moving towards national and international standards on organic production.
Which leads me briefly to the environment. The Conservative Party of Canada also recognizes the need to ensure the sustainability of both agriculture and the environment.
We will therefore seek a balance between production needs and adequate production of the environment.
And we start from a perspective – one that seems to be threatened these days - that agricultural producers and farm families are first and foremost stewards of the land and are in the best position to serve as protectors of the environment and the land they live on.
You know, when we talk about areas like the environment, I
am often struck at how cavalierly the serious concerns of rural
Such was the case, for instance, with the Species at Risk Act and the Cruelty to Animals Act, whose impact on rural Canadians was ignored by the federal government in its haste to please stronger and politically more interesting lobbies.
We recently had a debate in Parliament over the continuing
saga of the expropriated, unused and unreturned agricultural lands in
Ladies and gentlemen, you are the real experts on agriculture and I want to wind up so I can take your questions and hear your suggestions and points of view.
Let me just conclude by mentioning that the first national
convention of the new Conservative Party of Canada will take place March 17-19
in
I expect agricultural and rural issues will be a central part of the discussions leading to the adoption of official Conservative party policies.
But that is not enough: we want to bring the concerns of Canadian farmers to the highest decision-making level – in the benches of a new federal Conservative government!
We still have some way to go, as a party, before we win the confidence of a majority of Canadians.
But I can tell you right now that when we form the government, you will see, among Gary and his colleagues, the strongest, most impressive, hardest-working agricultural and rural representatives in a federal government – ever.
We view the agriculture industry to be a key strategic
economic sector of
Rural
That is why agriculture and agri-food, fisheries, mining, and forestry - economic sectors that sustain so many of our communities - will be a priority in a Conservative government.
But we don’t see farmers and rural Canadians as economic producers only.
In rural
These are Conservative values and they are Canadian values.
And they are why your communities and your industries have earned the admiration and gratefulness of Canadians, and why you deserve the respect and support of the next federal government.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup. God bless