YORKTON - Canada has a new federal agriculture minister and the question now is of course what will that mean.
That is the challenge ahead for Heath MacDonald, who represents the riding of Malpeque in Prince Edward Island, and therein lies a natural challenge for whoever assumes the mantle as ag minister – it has to be hugely difficult to fully appreciate the needs of farmers across a country as vast as Canada.
The supports needed by a potato farmer in PEI, has to be vastly different from a canola farmer on the Prairies, or a fruit grower in B.C.
In general government programming looks to create something which is ‘one size fits all’ since that reduces red tape and makes thing largely ‘black and white’ in nature. You fill in the blanks, file the paperwork and wait as the system checks that the correct boxes were marked.
But given the rather broad range of agriculture a simple set of boxes just does not work.
While there are of course a legion of bureaucrats involved in formulating policy and programming, it is MacDonald who at least needs to set a general course.
In a recent www.producer.com article it was noted MacDonald has said “he hopes to have discussions with farmers and provincial ministers across the country to build trust and better understand the issues facing different regions.”
Now, that isn’t too surprising. It’s almost a ‘boilerplate’ position when taking on a new role, to say you want to talk to get to know needs on a first hand basis.
So it is now incumbent on MacDonald to make good on that suggestion and have those talks.
Equally critical is that farm groups and provincial officials come to those talks with an open mind. This can be a fresh start for farm policy so give the process a chance.
And there is where MacDonald can shine, or fail as agriculture minister. Once he has had his discussions then he has to act on what he hears in as positive fashion as is possible.
Of course not every farm sector is going to be happy no matter what agriculture policy comes forward in the coming months. As noted it’s too diverse a field to create something that meets every need 100 per cent, but at least now there seems a window to do better.
Given trade issues at present certainly farm trade has challenges and good federal government policy in support of the sector is critical.
Hopefully, for Canadian agriculture coast-to-coast-to-coast MacDonald is up to the challenge of creating that support structure.
