Opinion

TheReview

Fruit growers not impressed with Commission’s report

VICTORIA — If tree fruit
gTowers were unhappy before,
they*re downright disgusted now,
but they will still have to learn the
first lesson of a free market
society: you can’t keep an industry
going with subsidies.

After several months of hearings
and deliberations, the commission
of inquiry into the British Colum-
bia tree fruit industry came back
with a report that spells out the
industry's major problems and
possible cures.

The report says that “painful
changes,’ combined with short-
term government support are nec-
essary to allow a reasonable num-
ber of B.C. orchards to compete
and survive. The report is highly
critical of past government support
programs.

“The commission has con-
cluded that too many support pro-
grams were established and too
large a percentage of scarce funds
were Teleased in an ad-hoc fash-
ion,” the report says. Substitute
political expediency for ad-hoc
fashion and you got the idea.

The report warns against the
establishment of an apple market-
ing board. Supply management, it
Says, would only be a burden to
consumers. It goes on to say that
the provincial government would
be well advised to withhold its
Support for any national apple
agency with supply-management
powers.

Instead, the report recommends
that a provincial replant program
be established to help growers
improve their operations and cash
Tetums by way of renovation and
diversification of their orchards.
Planting newer varieties at higher
densities and better marketing
techniques, the report says, are part
of the answer.

To assist growers, the report
recommends short-term help
through both low-interest loans
and cash grants, but only if the
applicant fulfils certain economic
viability requirements. It’s clear
from the tone of the report that
marginal orchards should not be
propped up at taxpayers’ expense.

Considering the author, the
report's recommendations are no

surprise. Dr. Peter Lusztig, who
chaired the inquiry, is dean of
commerce and business adminis-
tration at the University of British
Columbia. His approach is pure
market economy-oriented.

Lusztig isn’t alone in his oppo-
sition to marketing boards. The
Economic Council of Canada says
in a 1990 study that supply man-
agement boards, while managing
to increase the income of their
members, have done so at consid-
erable cost to society.

Similar sentiments were expre-
ssed in a submission to the inquiry
by Howard Wetston, director of
investigation and research under
the federal competition act.

Most industries have to work
within the competitive constraints
of a market economy. We wouldn’t
dream of giving cash grants to
contractors who are losing their
shirts building houses, but agricul-

ture has always been treated differ-
ently.

We tend to take government
support of agricultural industries
for granted, but Lusztig isn’t
bogged down by such sentiments.
He’s an economist, not a politi-
cian, nor a sentimentalist.

And that’s why the report lam-
bastes the government for playing
politics with the Agricultural Land

Reserve.

Cabinet, it Says, should never
hear appeals for exclusion from
the ALR and should make deci-
sions on exclusions only in “truly
exceptional’ cases.”

The report further recommends
that the ministry of agriculture do
a thorough review of all orchards
and consider excluding the really

Marginal ones from the land
TeSEIve.

The industry will have one more
chance to air its grievances before
the government acts on the report.
Agriculture Minister John Savage
1s meeting with growers in seven
Interior communities this week to
find out what they think of it. He
Iay get an ear full.

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