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Agriculture a low priority Barely a nod in budget, throne speeches
by PETER MITHAM VICTORIA – A new session
of the provincial legislature opened on September 8 in what amounted to a formality after weeks of agenda-setting by BC’s new NDP government. With planks of the party’s official election platform echoed in the mandate letters issued to both agriculture minister Lana Popham and environment minister George Heyman, and reiterated in conversations with media, the government stuck to generalities in the throne speech it gave Lieutenant
Governor Judith Guichon to deliver. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that agriculture didn’t receive greater attention, acknowledged only in a pledge – towards the end of the speech – to “support BC’s traditional industries, including forestry, mining, agriculture, and natural gas development.”
The first aim of this support is to help communities recover from the effects of the unprecedented wildfires, which had already been addressed three days earlier with the announcement of an
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$8 million provincial contribution to a $20 million relief package developed in partnership with the federal government. “Government will work with them to rebuild local economies, including forestry, tourism, small business and agriculture,” Guichon read. But the province’s $8 million worth of support to agriculture and other sectors didn’t rate a mention in the budget update finance minister Carole James delivered on September 11. Rather, it was buried in the particulars of $255 million in funding for wildfire relief, also previously announced, as well as spending for reconstruction, habitat restoration and the mitigation of future wildfires. The one call-out agriculture
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received in the budget update came in the eighth-to-last paragraph and had nothing to do with increased funding for provincial agriculture programs. Rather, it was a pledge to eliminate the provincial sales tax on electricity. “These savings will support businesses in every corner of the province, from forestry to construction, mining to agriculture,” James promised. The pledge to shift businesses into clean energy came on the heels of news that the carbon tax would increase by $5 a tonne effective April 1, 2018. James promised further
measures in the coming weeks, meaning that farmers will have to wait for news of any substantial funding investments flowing their way.
COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • OCTOBER 2017
Food policy consultation visits Vancouver
by PETER MITHAM VANCOUVER –
Consultations towards a national food policy came to Vancouver on September 5, for a morning of discussions at UBC. Vancouver was the third
stop for a series of meetings that began in Charlottetown, PEI and St. Hyacinthe, QC in August. A similar consultation took place later the same week in Yellowknife, NWT, with the concluding sessions set for Guelph, ON and Winnipeg, MB later in the month. Representatives of various producer groups as well as industry attended the session. Agriculture and Agri-
food Canada staff said the Vancouver session was closed to media.
A statement was not
released to media following the Vancouver meeting, however, one followed the Yellowknife meeting three days later. That document included a comment from federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay highlighting the vital importance of consulting citizens. “We need to make sure
we get those decisions right,” he said. Northwest Territories MP
Michael McLeod described the Yellowknife meeting as “an opportunity to hear
directly from those affected by the specific and unique food challenges in Canada's North.” With federal
announcements regarding agriculture on the West Coast primarily related to research and trade, the meetings in Vancouver undoubtedly touched on the specific and unique challenges facing producers and processors in the production and distribution of high-quality food. In addition to the official
government consultation, individual MPs such as Mel Arnold, the Conservative member for North Okanagan-Shuswap, have held their own public meetings to gather input. Public consultations
towards the new food policy began May 29 with an online survey that garnered 40,000 responses before the August 31 deadline. The survey asked Canadians to comment on issues including increasing access to affordable food; improving health and food safety; soil, water, and air conservation; and high-quality food production. The results of the consultation will be summarized and presented in a series of national meetings which federal staff expect media will be able to attend.
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