HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2000-11-15, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2000.
Federal candidates debate ag policies
On the eve of a farmers’ march on
Ottawa to protest lack of federal
financial support, a debate on agri
cultural policy in Huron-Bruce was
relatively quiet and well-mannered.
At the all-candidates meeting held
at the Brucefield school, Wednesday,
incumbent Paul Steckle had to
defend himself throughout the
evening from suggestions his Liberal
government had failed to hear the
pleas for help from farmers feeling
the triple effects of poor crops, low
commodity prices and lower levels
of government support than their
American neighbours.
All three of his opponents, Mark
Beavan of the Canadian Alliance,
Ken Kelly of the Progressive
Conservatives and Christine Kemp
of the New Democratic Party,
pledged to immediately help farmers
if they were elected. Steckle said he
would immediately provide the
money for farmers if it was up to him
and pledged to be on the busses
heading to Ottawa to lobby his own
government for greater support.
“I’ve been there with the farmers
of this county,” Steckle said as the
evening closed, recalling he had
attended the march to Ottawa to
speak up for supply management
before the World Trade Organization
agreement. “I will be there with you
tomorrow.”
But Beavan wasn’t about to let
Steckle off the hook. While he felt
sorry for him, Beavan said Steckle
was “not allowed to support your
riding as you would have liked to”
because of government indifference
to the needs of farmers.
Beavan said with a Canadian
Alliance government there would be
no need for a march on Ottawa
because the party is committed to
giving farmers help through safety
net programs.
Kemp too said the NDP has com
mitted the $300 million that has been
asked for by the Ontario Federation
of Agriculture (OFA) on behalf of
farmers.
“Our money is on the table,”
Kelly said in pledging $333 million
in immediate support for farmers.
But he went further, saying his party
would ‘listen to farmers when they
need help, not after they’ve had to
take the drastic step of going to
Ottawa.”
Kelly criticized the AIDA program
created by the federal government to
help farmers in severe distress. “I’ve
never seen a program so designed
not to do what it was intended to
do,” said the former vice-president
of the OFA. The program, he
charged in his summation, was
designed not to pay out any money.
Beavan had earlier also attacked
the AIDA program saying only 42
per cent of the allotted funds had
been given out despite the problems
farmers face. But Steckle defended
the program claiming the federal
government had paid out more
money in the shared-cost program,
than farmers had so far received. He
wondered what had happened to the
provincial portion of the funds.
Writer urges all to be watchdogs
Continued from page 4
tanks, gasoline and chemical tanks,
and with leachate from landfill - and
hazardous waste sites. Of creating an
‘Environmental Crime Watch’ to
stop careless handling and illegal
dumping of excess liquid manure,
pesticides, sewage sludge, toxic
industrial wastes and other haz
ardous wastes. Of establishing an
effective water quality monitoring
system throughout the region. Of all
the stakeholders practising environ
mental stewardship.
If Steckle was the target of the
other three candidates, Beavan took
the brunt of criticism in questions
from the floor. Bob Down, past pres
ident of the Ontario Corn Producers
told Beavan his organization had
tried to get a definitive answer on
just what support the Alliance would
give to needy grains and oil seeds
farmers.
When Beavan answered with his
attack on AIDA, Down reminded
him he had still not answered the
question.
“If you're looking for a number
tonight, I don’t have it,” Beavan
said, saying he wasn’t going to say
something he didn’t know.
Gordon Hill, Varna-area farmer
and former president of the OFA
questioned Beavan on his commit
ment to support supply management
at the same time as the party sup
ported the right of western farmers
to have a choice to sell outside the
Canadian Wheat Board system.
Beavan said western grain farmers
wanted the right to choose but that
supply management would remain a
compulsory program. Hill asked if
he could name one marketing board
that could work if farmers had the
right to opt out of the board. “I have
been involved with marketing
boards for a number of years and I
don’t know of any,” Hill said.
Seaforth dairy farmer and former
Huron Federation president Bill
Wallace challenged Beavan on the
pledge to only reduce Canadian agri
cultural tariffs when other countries
guarantee equal access to their mar
kets for Canadian products. How, he
wondered, would an Alliance gov
ernment get around non-tariff barri
ers erected by other countries.
Beavan said unless those barriers
were reduced, his government would
not reduce Canadian tariffs.
Steckle shot back that it was
impossible to reduce tariffs and still
claim to support supply manage
ment.
Earlier, in declaring his party’s
commitment to free trade, Kelly took
a shot at the Liberals. “We’re not the
guys who lost Article 11,” he said of
the article under the General
Letter to the editor
B.C. resident hopes
Brussels stavs same
THE EDITOR,
I am writing from Nanaimo, B.C.
where we receive your paper by
mail, albeit a bit late. I have been
reading with great interest about the
amalgamation of Brussels into
Huron East.
Last Christmas, myself, my wife
and our family spent the holidays in
Brussels with her parents and family.
I was overwhelmed by the commu
nity spirit, and quality of life that
you folks enjoy. We truly enjoyed
our time there. We went on a
hayride, tobogganing and several
All of us are part of the problem.
All of us have to become a part of the
solution by doing what is fundamen
tally right for our environment, for
our health and that of future genera
tions. We just cannot afford not to do
so.
Many of you are already hard at
work on improving our environment.
Many of you have serious concerns.
I hope my vision already is your
vision or will now become your
vision. With a serious commitment,
plenty of good will, genuine co-oper
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that
allowed Canada to bar imports of
milk, eggs and poultry meat, thus
giving supply managed commodities
their ability to negotiate with proces
Raising questions
Federal election candidates were on the hot seat as the Huron Federation of Agriculture host
ed an all-candidates meeting at Huron Centennial Public School in Brucefield on Nov. 8. From
left: NDP Christine Kemp, Canadian Alliance Mark Beaven, Liberal MP Paul Steckle, PC Ken
Kelly.
Candidates debate health care
Next to agriculture, health care
questions were the most numerous
when the Huron County Federation
of Agriculture held its all-candidates
meeting at Brucefield, Wednesday
night.
While incumbent Paul Steckle
defended his Liberal government’s
support for health care, the three
challengers all pledged more money
to improve a system they said was
lacking.
But at one point, when a question
from the floor asked each candidate
point-blank if they believed in two-
tier health care and Steckle, Mark
Beavan for the Canadian Alliance
and Ken Kelly of the Progressive
Conservatives all said they were
opposed, Christine Kemp of the New
Democratic Party reacted in disbe
lief.
“I’m shocked to hear all this,” she
said, ticking off the contradictions of
all three parties. Her research, she
daily excursions.
I was most impressed by the
friendly businesses and personal
services. The sidewalks and streets
were kept snow free and clean dur
ing the heavy snowfall.
My concern is, will this quality of
service, and therefore quality of
life, still exist under the East
Huron Council? Brussels, as it is
today, is a slice of Canadiana.
I certainly hope this would
remain.
Peter M. Lang
Nanaimo, B.C.
ation, wide support and focussed
hard work we collectively can make
our beaches, our rivers and our
groundwater clean and safe again.
Let’s just do it!
Please join me in this endeavour
and ask at least five others to become
an ‘Environmental Crime Watcher’.
Let me know of your projects
planned or already underway. You
can reach me by phone at 519-243-
1680, by mail at RR2, Grand Bend,
ON N0M 1T0 or by e-mail at
Kkmsbwise@acncanada.net
sors. Article 11 was taken away with
the World Trade Organization
(WTO) agreement in 1993.
“When we took over Article 11
was lost,” said Steckle of the
said, showed the Conservatives felt
the health care system was in trouble
and needed to be supplemented by
private services. The Liberals had
done nothing to stop the Alberta gov
ernment from bringing in private
hospitals in that province and the
Alliance was led by Stockwell Day
who was part of that Alberta govern
ment.
The NDP, she said, was strongly
opposed to two-tier health care. “It
will be our downfall!”
Answering another written ques
tion, Beavan said the Alliance would
not only replace the $25 billion he
claimed the Liberals had taken out of
health care, but would-legislate long
term funding so the provinces can
rebuild the system.
Kelly too said his party was com
mitted to restoring funding to health
care but he also looked ahead, saying
nobody is preparing for the aging
population and the added demands
this will bring. “It’s time to start
building for the future,” he said.
Kemp said the NDP would not
only return federal health care fund
ing to 1993 levels immediately but
would also institute a national home
care program to help the aging popu
lation stay at home as long as possi
ble and would introduce a $2.3 bil
lion national pharmacare program to
help people with drug costs.
Steckle disputed the dire talk of
cuts, saying federal funding had
already been returned to 1993-94
levels by 1998-99. Since then, he
said, the government had pledged to
spend $21.3 billion over the next
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Liberals 1993 election victory just
before the WTO was signed. His
government went to work to try to
get tariffs high enough for supply
management to survive, he said.
four years, a level all provinces have
agreed to.
Steckle says HRDC
benefitted riding
The Huron-Bruce riding has bene
fitted through grants from the
Human Resource Development
Canada (HRDC) to the tune of $2
million a year, Huron-Bruce MP
Paul Steckle told an all-candidates
meeting in Brucefield, Wednesday
night.
Steckle said he had fought for
funding for local projects from the
controversial agency and “I have no
apologies.”
Mark Beavan, Canadian Alliance
Party candidate said it was good to
have such funds come to Huron-
Bruce but “let’s keep money in tax
payers’ pockets” by cutting taxes
instead. “Some of these (HRDC)
grants amount to corporate welfare.”
Tax cuts may be fine if you have a
job, said Christine Kemp, New
Democratic Party candidate, “But if
you don’t have a job and you’re try
ing to start a business, tax cuts don’t
do much good.” Many people are
struggling to create their own jobs
and tax cuts don’t help them, she
said.
Ken Kelly, Progressive
Conservative candidate, said he had
been involved in local training
boards for 15 years and in the early
period the local boards had some dis
cretion on how funding was spent,
but the Liberals had changed the way
training money was allocated.