The Rural Voice, 2005-05, Page 12John Beardsley
Quebec's different path succeeds
John
Beardsley is
former farm
director of
CKNX radio
and has been
involved in
agribusiness
for many
years.
I meet a fair number of non -
farmers in my travels around Ontario.
After explaining what I do for a
living I am often asked about the
state of farming in the province.
One of the key things I learned
from the National Farmers Union
is that Agriculture is doing quite well
— it's just farming that's not. Many
of the farmers I talk to are pessimistic
about the future. Good farmers are
spending more time planning their
exit from the industry that they have
devoted their lives to than they are
planning their next crop. Many
commodity groups have resorted to
bringing in comedians to their annual
general meetings to add a little levity
to the otherwise depressing current
realities.
It was quite a contrast to hear Gib
Patterson tell a much different story
at the National Farmers Union annual
general meeting early in April.
Patterson, who is the president of
the Anglophone Quebec farmers'
association, is a beef producer from
the rugged farmland in the Gatineau
hills north of Ottawa. When
the U.S. border closed to Canadian
cattle, Quebec producers took a
proactive stance. When it appeared
that nothing would happen quickly to
resolve the issue Quebec farmers
developed a plan to deal with the
situation. In September 2003
they identified the lack of processing
capacity as the Achilles heel of the
industry. They increased their
checkoff fee to $20 a head. Their
goal was to buy or build a slaughter
plant to help get more of the
consumer dollar back to the farmers.
They entered into negotiations to
buy a 50 -percent interest in the
Colbec-Levinoff cow processing
plant near Montreal. When they
reached an impasse in 18 months of
8 THE RURAL VOICE
talks they went to plan "B"and
asked the Quebec government to
establish a floor price. The Quebec
government told the beef producers
that they already had the ability to set
a floor price under their current
commodities marketing legislation.
What they didn't have was any power
to enforce it.
Quebec beef producers decided in
December 2004, after 19 months of
record profits for beef packers, to set
the floor price at 42 cents per pound
(nearly double the current price).
Levinoff s response to this was to
drop their bids to five cents per
pound. One thing led to another and
soon there was a blockade setup
outside the processing plant. The
blockade garnered huge public
support because the Quebec
beef producers had been educating
the public with a series of different
public protests for the previous
eighteen months.
Patterson says they had absolutely
no intention of blackmailing the
owners of Colbeck-Levinoff s to sell.
The fact that Mr.Colbeck suggested
selling his plant can be attributed to
the hard work that went into the
previous negotiations. He knew if he
didn't sell that Quebec beef
producers were serious about getting
a competitive plant built.
Gib Patterson says Quebec
farmers are excited about their future
and it is in large part due to the fact
that their farm groups get problems
solved. He pointed out to the NFU
that the ASRA insurance program
pays farmers in low price years based
cn a cost of production formula. This
formula calculates a $40,000 -per -year
wage for farmers to be the equivalent
of a city worker's wage.
Farmers pay premiums equal to a
third of the previous year's payout in
good price years to help fund the
program. The program is run by the
UPA, the Quebec farmers' union, not
by the expensive government
bureaucracy. Having this program
means that Quebec farmers can plan
for the future knowing they have a
reasonably good chance at making a
profit. If the Ontario governments'
blue ribbon committee doesn't come
up with a cost of production program
to solve some of the market
inequalities here, then Ontario
farmers will continue to be second
class citizens in their own country.
While this optimistic time of
spring planting is upon us let us hope
Agriculture Minister Steve Peters is
correct when he says "the Ontario
government won't allow farmers to
just wither away on the vine".0
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