Government’s disconnect from the farming sector.
Government disconnect frustrating
Every buzz made me more fidgety. Every buzz i ncreased my desire to leave that meeting room. I knew who was trying to get a hold of me. It was my dad. He was going to start harvesting our soybeans that day. He was letting me know how it was going and checking to see when I’d be able to make it back to help.
I wanted to be there for the opening moves of that year’s harvest. They are fraught with anticipation — that pause between when you position that mammoth combine in front of a new field, registering that moment as the possible beginning of the harvest season and when you activate the rotor, push the throttle, lower the header and start threshing. I missed that. I was the only man around the table not wearing a suit. It was fall and the official opposition shadow cabinet wanted to get grassroots feedback on a few controversial things the Liberals had recently rolled out — a carbon levy and proposed income tax changes. I left early. “I have to go. My dad is waiting for me back at the farm,” I said.
Conser vative MP and agriculture and agribusiness critic Luc Berthold asked if he could tell Prime Minister Trudeau that he was unable to get proper feedback on the proposed income tax changes from farmers because the Liberals were asking for it right when farmers were busy on the field.
Berthold, in other words, wanted to use my leaving the meeting early as an example illustrating just how disconnected the Trudeau government was with the day- today workings of Canadian agriculture.
I told him he could and got out of there as fast as possible. My farm is about an hour and a half from downtown Winnipeg.
According to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business ( CFIB) released at the end of January, 93 per cent of the farmers they were able to reach say the regulatory burden on their businesses is growing; 83 per cent believe red tape contributes to significant stress; and 73 and 70 per cent, respectively, believe it cuts into productivity and discourages business growth.
“While governments are great at celebrating agriculture, which is important, what farmers really want is for governments to set them free from excessive red tape,” said Marilyn Braun- Pollon, CFIB’s vice- president for Agri-business. “Red tape hits home the closest for farmers. A farmer just doesn’t have time to sit on the phone waiting for government to answer questions or fill out piles of confusing paperwork in the middle of calving. The work they do is too important to be tied up in red tape.”
The mound of paperwork sitting in front of me is not as large as, say, a farm that has employees, but filling out complex paperwork in the throes of the busy season is something with which I contend.
As a f armer, and one who’d rather not work in opposition to government, my wish on this matter is the same wish I have when dealing with issues of public trust: take the time to understand what it is we do and the conditions in which we work.
You will not get a hold of me in April. May will also be tricky. June, too. July, perhaps, if the ask is clear and easy. August, no. September, no. October, likely not.
In the marketplace, farmers are price takers. In the arena of public trust, we are the ones who get called out. Farmers are respondents. We are the ones who have to choose our words carefully, if we are to keep relationships and the agriculture sector as mighty as it can be.
We rely on government programs. We rely on business risk- management programs and many others.
The survey mentioned the strides Manitoba has made in reducing the amount of red tape. And it shows. Farmers seem to have a positive relationship with the provincial government.
But, appreciating government and being able to put red tape in context is a position limited to those who largely understand the paperwork they are being pushed to complete — to those who can see the forest for the trees.
There are many who can’t. There are many who are too burdened by the complexity of program forms to ever sign up for them, despite the significant benefits. And that is sad.
I think Canada could do better. And I think it starts with simple things, like, say, not asking for my feedback on tax changes that will disrupt my succession plan while the combine is running.