Aside from the difference in political stripe, the new federal government means quite a change for western farmers. You may or may not have agreed with their policies, but at least the Conservatives had plenty of MPs who knew how to run a swather, sort cattle or fill out an AgriStability form. There are some fine MPs in the new Trudeau government, but those are skills that few or any possess.
That leads us to as good a place as any to start a list of suggestions for the new government — appoint some farmers to the Senate. It may not be a popular institution these days, but the political and constitutional reality is that we’re stuck with it, so let’s fill it with good people. Prime Minister Trudeau has pledged that non-partisan Senate appointments will be made by a new third-party process. Farm groups should support that and make their case for qualified farmers to be nominated to fill some of the several vacant positions.
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The next suggestion is one that many others have made, and that is that the new government must respect science and scientists. It should be acknowledged that those of us covering agriculture have been slightly better off than other journalists covering other departments, especially environment. Unlike those scientists who have been muzzled completely, some Agriculture Canada staff such as plant breeders have actually been able to speak to us and say whether one variety has better disease resistance than the other, though probably after checking with the minister’s office first.
The reign of terror that partisan ministerial officials have held over scientists and other public servants was not started by the Harper government. It’s been a creeping problem since the last Trudeau administration. The new one should set scientists free to speak about their work.
That policy should apply to all public servants. Again, it did not start with Mr. Harper, but this country has seen a disturbing trend of government employees being labelled as “bureaucrats,” a word which has mistakenly come to imply “meddlesome officials.” Prime Minister Harper missed no opportunity to portray them as that or worse — people doing unnecessary work at taxpayers’ expense. Prime Minister Trudeau should work to help restore the image of public service as an honourable profession.
Speaking of sound science and public service, there has never been a better example than the work of the former Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), which arguably saved Western Canada from turning into a desert in the 1930s. A few years ago the PFRA was absorbed into the “Agri-Environment Services Branch” of Agriculture Canada, suspiciously not long after releasing a major report which documented that the condition of soil and water in Western Canada was not as rosy as some would like to claim. In 2012, in a bizarre example of penny-pinching for no good reason, the Harper government unloaded the remaining PFRA community pasture and shelterbelt programs.
Given climate change, the decline of glaciers in the Rockies, increasing water demand, water-quality problems and essentially uncontrolled drainage, there is an urgent need for a Prairie-wide water- and soil-management strategy. A revived PFRA might be ideal to develop and implement one, and keeping the old name wouldn’t hurt. Farmers trusted the PFRA, and knew that its staff understood their needs as well as the needs of the environment, which will get a lot more attention under the new government.
Farmers and their organizations need to be prepared for that. The perception, if not the reality, is that since Prairie farmers have so strongly supported the Conservatives, they also support the Conservative position on the environment, especially the relationship between greenhouse gases and climate change. That position has been grudging acceptance in public and outright denial in private.
Farmers and their organizations need to realize that if they want the regulations on the safety of pesticides and genetically modified crops to be based on the vast majority of scientific opinion, they had better accept the vast majority of scientific opinion on climate change. Otherwise they won’t be taken seriously.
Canada’s “big city” mayors have clearly done a good job of establishing a relationship with the Trudeau Liberals, and making their case for more money to rebuild crumbling urban infrastructure. Western Canada’s municipal and other rural representatives will need to work hard on building the same relationship. When they visit Ottawa, they can no longer drop in to see a local MP who is part of the government. It’s time to start knocking on some new doors, and speaking the same language when they get in.
