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Tories would give farmers $500M

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CHATHAM, Ont. (CP) -- Farmers would get an additional $500 million in government support and Western participation in the Canadian Wheat Board would be voluntary under a Conservative government, Leader Stephen Harper said Wednesday.

Conservatives would also require five-per-cent renewable content such as ethanol and bio-diesel in fuel by 2010, and replace the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization Program with a more effective program and a separate disaster relief plan, he said.

Harper pledged to "give farmers the freedom to make their own marketing and transportation decisions," and said

"Western grain farmers should be able to participate voluntarily in the Canadian Wheat Board."

"We also believe it is in the best interest of Canada ... that the industries under the protection of supply management remain viable," he added.

Ontario farmers have been free to market their wheat as they wish for years, but have been shackled by falling prices and subsidized competitors.

"Something's got to be fixed soon," said David Eagleson, 56, a grain and oilseed producer in the riding of Chatham Kent-Essex.

"It's a total disaster."

Tories have high hopes in the rural riding, which went Liberal in 2004 by just 407 votes. The Grits took nearby Middlesex-Kent-Lambton by just 164 votes, and neither Liberal incumbent is running again.

"We've been fighting for 12 years for an agriculture policy and we've been totally ignored," Eagleson said.

Harper tried to capitalize on that frustration, saying the Liberals only came up with $755 million in emergency funds for farmers like Eagleson when it was clear they were about to be forced back to the polls.

The Tory leader said he'd get that money into the hands of those who need it as soon as possible, on top of the extra $500 million promised.

The supply-management model was first tried in Australia in the 1920s to guard farmers' earnings from economic swings. It was also intended to stabilize prices for their products and give them more power with buyers.

Detractors say the system is needlessly costly, especially when it comes to dairy production.

But proponents defend it as a crucial part of Canadian agriculture policy and say the Liberals have failed to promote it internationally.

Indeed, Harper accused the former government of turning Canada into "almost an empty chair" during pivotal World Trade Organization talks, which wrapped up Sunday.

"The Liberal ministers who attended the WTO meetings in Hong Kong failed to work successfully on behalf of pork, beef, grain and oilseed producers," Harper said to cheers from the crowd of mostly party faithful.

They "need greater access to international markets in order to get a fair return on their product."

Trade Minister Jim Peterson and Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell pledged last week to defend dairy, poultry and egg marketing boards based in Central and Eastern Canada, along with the Canadian Wheat Board, which some countries say gives grain farmers an unfair advantage.

Charlie Angus, the former NDP agriculture critic who is running for re-election in the riding of Timmins-James Bay, said the Liberals "really have abrogated their responsibilities" when it comes to promoting supply management internationally.

"No one in the rest of the world understands how our system works.

"We need to get out there and aggressively promote it.

"We could have been building (global) allies."

Angus said Harper's proposed changes to the Canadian Wheat Board sound a death knell for one of the few buffers against surging agri-food giants.

Such a move "would replace the power of the farmer with corporate power," Angus said.

Farm lobby groups were also alarmed by the wheat board proposal.

"The single-desk selling policy has been supported year after year in democratic elections by a voting majority of western farmers," Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen said in a release.

"I hope, if they form the next government, Mr. Harper and his party will respect that."

The National Farmers Union points out that 75 so-called agri-biz corporations made huge profits in 2004 on both ends of the food system, supply and demand, while farmers experienced near record losses.