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PRAIRIE PROVINCES

By FRANK GOLDSPINK

WINNIPEG — With the Manitoba farm and rural community headed for another disastrous year of record-high bankruptcies and foreclosures, the pro- vincial New Democratic Party govern- Ment is being looked to more and more to help fight off the banks and play a big part I saving the family farm.

Tninterviews with the Tribune, farmers from various parts of the province give the NDP “‘part marks” for tentative steps to Telieve debt loads and increase and Stabilize incomes.

But they insist the province could be doing more, both to relieve farmers’

financial burdens and to mobilize and unify a farm and rural fightback.

Positive Steps

The NDP achievements listed for the Tribune are:

e Lowering of interest rates on Man- itoba Agricultural Credit Corporation loans to eight per cent for one year. (“I think it was of some help,” said one farmer. Another called it ‘‘a real sign of leadership’ and a move which ‘exposed all the rest of them (the banks) who wouldn’t do it.’”)

e Calling for a meeting of all federal and provincial agriculture ministers with the heads of the banks to discuss the farm

debt crisis. (The federal Conservatives and most of the provincial Tory govern- ments refused or snubbed the invitation, as did the banks.)

e Introducing, in March, the Com- prehensive Refinancing Program, with the first $100,000 available at 934 per cent. (By mid-May there were nearly 100 applications to the program.)

e Taking limited steps in stabilizing prices for red-meat producers.

e Introducing debt review panels, with some community input.

Moratorium Essential

The disappointments:

e No moratorium on foreclosures and bankruptcies. (*‘They made some noises about it last spring and then didn’t do anything, despite the fact that there are lots of party convention resolutions on this.’’)

e Failure to introduce the promised Manitoba Family Farm Protection Act.

e Not resisting the federal farm in- come policy of ‘‘stabilization at a loss.”’

e Outright refusal to re-introduce landbanking, akey, according to the farm- ers who were interviewed, for young people being able to get into farm- ing or keep working the family farm. (‘My biggest disappointment,’ said one. ‘‘It was one of the best programs the (former) Schreyer (NDP) government ever put in for agriculture. It certainly got to the root of the (land price) problem’’)

e The NDP’s emphasis on short-term financial relief (‘‘It’s just another crisis intervention and perhaps will cause a delay in the fight for a proper income and marketing policy.’’) -

The Winnipeg Free Press reported last spring that farm prices were down an average of 21 per cent in Manitoba from 1982, including a drop of as much as 35

Half measures limit farm fightback —

Adequate and stable farm income must be the cormerstone of farm pro- tection policy. A long-standing demand of Prairie farmers has been for a system of orderly marketing and effective stabilization plans.

Bleak Outlook

“‘There’s no indication the trend is going to reverse (for grain prices),”’ says — farm activist. ‘‘That’s the bleak part of it.”

Political action in the provinces is spe- cially important because the federal Tory “free traders”’ aren’t likely to act. “‘It’s against their principles,’ one farmer told _ the Tribune.

- There is a strong belief that the NDP could mobilize unified support for essen- tial reforms and overcome long-standing reservations and suspicions (fostered by Tory and big business ‘propaganda) by involving the farm community. in basic political education and action programs, around issues like landbanking, debt moratorium and orderly marketing.

“It’s a matter of running your own “‘literacy campaign’, to fight for the ones who don’t understand,’ says one farm leader.

“If you want to popularize an idea, you lay out exactly what it could do so no one would be afraid of it, so people wouldn’t think the next guy is going to do better, and to expose the real enemy, like the financial institutions.

‘*And that’s going to be hard work.”’”

The NDP must also drop its tendency to take a “‘divide-and-rule’’ approach which promotes disunity. ‘‘Sometimes the government seems to want to take advantage because, after all, a 60-quarter farmer and an eight-quarter farmer are not going to ask for the same things.””

per cent in southwestern Manitoba.

Second of two parts

Just when Canadians thought the current agricultural Crisis could get no worse, the federal Farm Credit Cor- Poration has projected ‘‘another major financial cala- mity”. And there are signals from bankers and Tory Politicians that they intend to let thousands of productive farmers go under ‘‘for the good of the industry.”

Grain prices will fall further next year, according to FCC research director Ralph Ashmead, largely because of a glut on international markets. He predicts yet an- Other sharp drop in farm incomes and a rise in bank- Tuptcies. The FCC has just released figures showing 23 Per cent of Canada’s farmers are under ‘‘severe financial Stress’’ up from 17 per cent a year ago. Thousands who had survived several years of bad weather and insects by selling off grain inventories have run out of stocks and have no way left to stave off bankruptcy.

Explosion of Bankruptcies A new explosion of bankruptcies also threatens a faster drop in land values — by as much as 40 per cent in Saskatchewan, says Ashmead. That could cripple the financial status of thousands of farmers who have es- Caped the worst of the crisis until now, and would send _ Shock waves through the banking system. Researchers Say 30 per cent of Canada’s $21-billion farm debt may be M arrears next year, and 10 per cent may never be Collected. : After months of vague promises and little action, the katchewan Tory government has now swung to- Wards a “‘let them sink’’ approach. Two revealing con- ferences were held in Saskatoon recently, featuring poli- ticians and bankers advising farmers to “stop resisting the inevitable’’. Speaking to 500 representatives from various agricul- ture organizations Oct. 28, Premier Devine detailed the history of the crisis. But instead of offering solutions, he asked rhetorically: ‘‘Do we have the courage to make Some structural changes in the way we do things to Survive internationally? ... People get comfortable and they don’t like change, but the only thing you can count on for sure is that there are going to be some changes and you best be able to cope with them.”

nks go into high gear against farmers

From. Regina

Kimball Cariou

‘Structural change’? has long been a _ polite euphemism for wholesale reduction of the western farm population. In Devine’s vision of this ‘‘new reality’’, the most profitable producers will survive and compete head to head with U.S. agribusiness, and the destruction of

‘rural communities is a necessary price to pay. In the

process, satisfying the demands of the railways, banks, and agribusiness corporations takes top priority. ‘We've been whitewashed’’, was the reaction of South West Drought Committee chairman John Wiebe, describing the conference as ‘‘an exercise in futility’. Prepare for Exodus

A week later, the same story unfolded in greater detail at the Canadian Bankers Association agricultural credit

conference. The remarks of Pat Killoran, director of _

agricultural services for the Bank of Nova Scotia, were typical: governments should stop trying to keep people on the land and start preparing for the “‘inevitable exodus”. ‘‘To resist the adjustment would not only be extremely expensive but also dangerous to the competi- tive health of the industry’.

University of Guelph economist George Brinkman claimed ‘‘drought and war’’ are needed to bail farmers out. He recommended that farmers should sell off fixed assets, try to reduce machinery costs, and ‘‘be willing to work part-time or have their spouses work full-time”’. (Somebody should inform the professor that this is al- ready common practise by farmers struggling to keep their operations going, and that it has often devastating

effects on the lives of the families concerned. Already off-farm wages and salaries account for nearly half the net income of Canada’s farmers.) Brinkman’s useful advice concluded with a warning that farmers in financial difficulties should get out before all their equity is lost. (Thousands who would like to are unable even to find buyers!)

Saskatchewan deputy minister of agriculture Jack Drew jumped on the bandwagon with his suggestion to speed up the exodus. He advocated government grants to ‘‘allow farmers to remove from the business with dignity.”

‘Grants’ to Farmers

While there were some dissenting voices, the views of conference participants were summed up in their answers to a questionnaire. The majority called for:

e no legislation to assist farmers in financial trouble;

e allowing the marketplace to ‘‘adjust without inter- ference’’;

e government assistance to “‘relocate and retrain farmers’’ who are forced out of business.

Debt moratoriums and a legislated writedown topped a list of government action opposed by the participants.

Various figures were thrown out at the gathering to estimate the possible cost of aid to farmers facing financial strains, ranging up to $3-billion or $4-billion. Canadian banks appear to be heading for total profits of over $2-billion in 1985, and other corporate interests are also raking in huge profits from farmers. Canadian Paci- fic has reported a profit of $196-million for the nine months ending Sept. 30, and CN took in $34-million from its rail operations during that period. Two of the biggest U.S.-owned grain multinationals, Cargill and Contin- ental, reported $12-million and $3.6-million profits respectively from their Canadian operations last year.

Clearly there’s money to be made in farming in this country — but not by most farmers. And the Conserva- tive government in Canada’s’ breadbasket, Sasktcehwan, has now joined big business in openly declaring that it doesn’t intend to lift a finger to change that situation.

-- sai tee ee

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 27, 1985 e 7

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