Producers and industry are concerned that the COVID-19 relief programs that have been announced by Ottawa don't meet their needs.
Conservative MP John Barlow, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-food, says they sent a letter to Minister Bibeau saying more needs to be done for Agriculture.
“Reinstitute the set-aside program. This is a quick easy solution to help the cattle industry across Canada who are facing a number of issues, feed costs, dwindling capacity, and processing plants. So the template is there. We've done this before it's successful. So let's roll that out. Also, we want to focus on, you know, review and addressing the BRM programs, AgriStability, AgriInvest and AgriRecovery to offer some financial assistance to agriculture.”
He says agriculture should be considered a mandatory essential service and should be deemed a critical infrastructure to keep processing plants working, rail lines moving and keep the supply chain intact.
The processing industry across Canada has been hit hard by COVID-19 with plants like Cargill at High River and JBS at Brooks reporting a number of employees out with the virus.
Barlow says the Liberals went part of the way two weeks ago saying agriculture is essential as an advisory, but they didn't make it mandatory.
“We really want them to go that extra step, work with the provinces. Many of them have already gone that step to deem it a mandatory essential service to keep our processing plants working, keep the rail lines moving, keep the supply chain, unbroken and intact. To ensure that, you know, there is not a food shortage or any of those kinds of issues. And I know it's hard to look months in advance but what doesn't get done today has a profound impact on what's going to be on your store shelves and the prices of those products later in the summer and into the fall.”
He notes I think through all of this, I hope Canadians have a better appreciation and a better understanding of the importance of Canadian agriculture and the work that farmers are doing.
“We're asking Canadians to stay home. But every day, farmers, ranchers processors are working 24/7 to ensure that we have food on our table, and our grocery store shelves are stocked and they deserve the support and the resources they need to keep on doing that.”
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