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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
I must have imagined it
I must have a better imagination
than I thought. I could have sworn
that last year was one of those once -a -
century years when we had no
summer but listening to the
politicians at the
Line in the Dirt
meeting in
Lucknow I
realize I must
have dreamt the
whole thing up.
From Federal
Ag Minister
Charlie Mayer to
Murray Cardiff to
Paul Klopp to
Roger George,
President of the
Ontario
Federation of
Agriculture, the
politicians kept
talking as if we hadn't had a once-in-
a-lifetime event but just another bad
year. They kept talking about fine-
tuning long-term farm support
programs like crop insurance, GRIP
and NISA. To me it felt like watching
idly as someone's house burns down
and discussing the good fire alarm
you're going to put in the new house.
Mayer kept saying "We're here to
listen". It wasn't until the press
conference after the meeting that
someone asked the question he hadn't
answered. There was, he said, no
money to help out.
I suggested to him that we had
come through one of those rare
occasions of natural disaster where
there was no summer. If a similar
once-in-a-lifetime natural disaster like
a revisiting of Hurricane Hazel to the
city of Toronto should happen next
week, I wondered, would the
govemment find money to help out?
He shrugged (there were times he
bore a striking resemblance to Pierre
Trudeau) and said that was a
hypothetical question. He then turned
to the blame -the -victim mode,
wondering what the government is
supposed to do if the people decided
not to take advantage of the safety net
programs the government provides.
It's an argument I have a certain
sympathy with. It has always
bothered me in recent years when
there has come a cry from farmers in
some part of Ontario for assistance
because of a localized crop failure. As
Jack Riddell said when he was
Ontario's Minister of Agriculture, if
people who don't have crop insurance
keep getting bailed out, why should
anyone buy crop insurance?
But 1992 was an unusual situation.
Mr. Mayer talked about the crop
problems in the West and elsewhere
in Canada, as if it were a reason not to
help Ontario farmers. What it really
showed was this was a natural
disaster of enormous proportions.
Someone asked during the meeting
why a state of natural disaster had
never been declared? Good question.
From the meeting it would appear the
politicians didn't know.
Neither Paul Klopp, M.P.P. for
Huron or Murray Cardiff, M.P. for
Huron -Bruce seemed willing to admit
there was a problem either. Even
Roger George, when asked if he
would support an ad hoc payment of
$60 an acre for annual crops and hay,
tap danced around the answer by
saying OFA supported lowering farm
input prices and reforming long-term
safety nets. "It's no good going for a
quick fix."
But if I wasn't imagining last
year's crop disaster, it would seem
that a quick fix is just what is needed
this time out. I know the government
has tried to get away from ad hoc
payments and has, commendably,
tried to design long-term income
supports but when a once -a -century
disaster comes on top of a decade of
declining prices and rising costs,
you're not in a normal situation. A
lot of farmers just aren't going to be
around to take advantage of the long-
term programs if something isn't done
quickly.
People are hurting out there. Some
fans families are actually going to
food banks. Some are having to turn
to emergency financial support
programs since farmers aren't eligible
for welfare. There's a cry for help out
there but the politicians apparently
can't hear it.0
Keith Roulston is editor and publisher
of The Rural Voice as well as being a
playwright. He lives near Blyth, Ont.