SARM’s Huber wants Western concerns heard in Ottawa

The head of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities is wanting to see Western concerns addressed by the federal government.

“We've been neglected for 10-plus years in western Canada, and Saskatchewan is in western Canada,” said Bill Huber, SARM president, to reporters following his morning address at the mid-term meetings in Regina.

“And we've got an agriculture industry here that's struggling right now with tariffs and trade, and our farmers are really suffering because of the non-movement of grain, especially canola seed, to China. We've got one of our biggest trading partners just across the 49th parallel that we do have to do business with [the USA]. They're the closest and one of our largest trading partners. And we need to see those goods, livestock, beef, cattle, pigs, pork, those things continue to cross that border. So we need those exports.”

Huber said it was also "disappointing to see that there's a $112 million decrease over the next year in agriculture spending” in the budget.

“That's not very encouraging when we should be increasing that budget for agriculture, especially in long-term safety net programs. That's where we need it, something that triggers fast, that gets money in the hands of producers within weeks or months, not years.”

News that India was imposing a 30 per cent duty on yellow peas on top of all the other tariffs “just kind of put the icing on the cake, I guess,” Huber said.

Huber noted relationships has been strained for a number of years with India, but had mended more recently.