OTTAWA — Agriculture minister makes no apologies for lack of crisis cash in budget

Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell faced down a room full of angry farmers Thursday, making no apologies for a federal budget that many producers said did nothing to help solve an urgent crisis in agriculture.

After Mitchell spoke to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, one farmer after another complained that the federal government doesn't appear to understand the pressing needs of producers.

"One of the things that was completely missing from the budget document was the urgency that's facing the farm community right now," said Ron Bonnett, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

"There were some things in the budget that were good. That's long-term stuff. But there's a crisis situation out their right now that has to be addressed."

Mitchell acknowledged that recent times have been tough on farmers. And he said the federal government will continue trying to help them.

"We will continue to work with producers to move forward," he said.

"And we'll continue to deal with the issues that they face."

Bonnett warned that some farmers, already facing bankruptcy, won't be able to plant crops this spring without immediate help.

"We've got to have some kind of an indication that the government is going to be there to respond very, very quickly within the next few days, to get money into farmers' pockets so they can seed."

The budget brought in Wednesday by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale included $104 million during the next four years to expand a cash-advance program under the Agriculture Marketing Programs Act to include livestock producers.

There was also $17.1 million to increase slaughter capacity. The money is needed to deal with the glut of older cattle in the system, created when the United States closed its border to Canadian beef in May 2003 after a single case of BSE, or mad cow disease, was discovered in Alberta.

As well, the government will spend $80 million over two years to help remove specified risk materials from animal feed, materials that are considered to have the highest potential for transmitting BSE. However, all of that money was included in the 2004 budget.

"I'm not going to be apologetic," Mitchell said as he hurried to a cabinet meeting after speaking to the farmers.

"My job is to work on behalf of farmers. I've done that in the past, I will continue to do that in the future," he said.

"We've got some progress made yesterday (in the budget), we've got some progress we made back in September with the (livestock) repositioning strategy."