Doer blasts feds on beef

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This article was published 31/07/2003 (8259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PREMIER Gary Doer lashed out at Ottawa yesterday for its handling of the mad cow crisis.

But back home, he came under fire from farmers for his government’s lack of leadership in dealing with the situation, which threatens to devastate the province’s cattle industry and hurt rural communities.

“The federal government has to be much more vocal with our trading partners,” Doer said. “We are calling on the prime minister to get more actively involved in this file.”

Doer said Ottawa hasn’t done enough to get the message out and that the time for “quiet diplomacy” — the style he says Ottawa has displayed — is over.

But while Doer was attacking the federal Liberals yesterday, Manitoba farmers were saying the province wasn’t doing enough, and farm and municipal leaders met to plot a course of action.

At a hastily called meeting yesterday afternoon at Winnipeg’s Victoria Inn, the Manitoba Cattle Producers’ Association and a variety of business and community leaders met to create a coalition aimed at helping ranchers survive.

Cattle farmer Garry Wasylowski said the province needs to be more aggressive in pushing the federal government to act on behalf of a disintegrating industry.

“It’s time for some strong pressure from the province,” said Wasylowski, reeve of the RM of Armstrong.

“The Canadian economy is in crisis.”

In Toronto, Doer met with Ontario Premier Ernie Eves, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert yesterday morning at a Toronto hotel before attending the largest barbecue and rock concert in Canadian history to flip beef burgers and sausages in view of the world’s media.

He also met lead singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and the rest of the legendary rock band, which headlined the massive concert staged to repair the country’s reputation, tarnished by SARS and a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.

This morning, he was to return to Winnipeg to flip burgers at a giant barbecue at Portage and Main — expected to attract thousands of Winnipeggers. Later in the day, he is to meet with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association for the first time since the BSE crisis began May 20, when a cow on an Alberta farm was discovered to have the disease.

Manitoba’s Great Canadian Beef BBQ goes from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Doer said yesterday he and the other premiers were hoping to show that Canada’s provinces can work together in the face of adversity, as they discussed how to respond to the devastation of Canada’s beef industry.

They met briefly with deputy prime minister John Manley and asked him to step up the pressure on the U.S. and Japan to open their borders to Canadian beef and cattle exports.

The two countries are among 34 who have slammed the door to Canadian beef since the crisis began.

However, at home, Doer and his government have been criticized for the lack of effectiveness of a federal-provincial program to assist beef farmers, as well as for the premier’s failure to meet with producers earlier.

In Hartney Tuesday night, as many as 700 farmers jammed a meeting hosted by the cattle producers’ association to vent their anger and frustration, hoping the federal and provincial governments would have answers.

Betty Green, the association’s president, said farmers are feeling “tremendous frustration” about the prolonged border closures and a government compensation program that does not address the needs of local ranchers.

“They made a very urgent call for action on the part of the government to do something,” said Green. “There is a realization out there we are running out of time.”

She said the worst is yet to come for farmers, who may not be able to pay bills, school taxes and make mortgage payments because they are unable to market their stock.

“We’re close to the time where people won’t be able to pay bills.”

Yesterday’s meeting in Winnipeg included representatives from rural municipalities, school boards, business and community groups, which sought to assess the impact the crisis is having on farmers and businesses dependent on the cattle industry.

Afterwards, Green said the 50 people in attendance had formed a united front.

“We validated some of the things we want to say (to the province). We’ll let the premier know that we want further support for producers and a clear signal that (the province) will be supportive of our industry,” she said.

Doer said he has heard the cries for changes to the government’s compensation program.

“We are going to make those changes,” he said.

But he also said he wants to “get on the same page” with producers, working on long-term improvements as well as short term aid like a program to help farmers feed their cattle.

Keystone Agricultural Producers president Weldon Newton of Neepawa said that governments and producers should have begun to prepare sooner.

“They (government) told us if we do the science and do it right, we’d be out of this mess. Well, we did the science and we did it right, but the problem still hasn’t been solved,” Newton said.

“It’s time for government at a high level to step in.”

Joe Masi, of Portage la Prairie, the executive director of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, said people from all walks of life have expressed fears of how the crisis could ultimately affect them.

“Farmers, local politicians, school divisions trustees, people from the machinery and trucking industries … the impacts are far-reaching,” Masi said.

Barry Foreman, owner of Foreman Ford in Dauphin, said it’s not just the ranchers who are feeling the pinch. He said he’s had a number of truck orders which have been cancelled this year by ranchers who do not want to take the financial risk of such a big purchase.

Ashern area rancher Ross Jeremy said while the cattle producers are experiencing the most direct hit from the border closure, other businesses are suffering too.

“We’re telling people that now, more than ever, it’s important to shop their local businesses,” he said. “We must keep money moving within our local communities and keep these businesses open. Without them, we don’t have a community.”

Meanwhile, St. Boniface Liberal MP Raymond Simard, chairman of the Manitoba Liberal caucus, took issue with Doer’s attack on Ottawa.

“I think our government has been doing a very good job,” Simard said.

He said the Manitoba caucus met producers here twice since the crisis began and carried their message to Ottawa. He also said the provincial caucus has been working with federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief to impose flexibility to the compensation program for Manitoba.

Yesterday in Toronto, the four premiers agreed to step up joint provincial efforts to lobby companies, U.S. governors, and cattle industry officials in the U.S. to get the border open.

“We were comparing notes about who we were talking to, and who we should be talking to,” Doer said.

At the Toronto barbecue, where grills stretched for a quarter-mile at Downsview Park, the premiers joined together in a show of national unity, flipping 7,000 pounds of Manitoba beef sausages and 250,000 Alberta beef hamburgers.

The premiers played it up for the television cameras, as nearly half a million people gathered for the concert, which was headlined by the Rolling Stones and included an appearance by Winnipeg’s The Guess Who.

Doer said the event was useful for the publicity it generated in the wake of two major economic crises — SARS in Toronto and BSE nationally.

“We’re saying to Canada, ‘We’re one country,'” Doer said. “We want the world to know Toronto is safe to be in and our beef is safe to eat.”

	mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
	leah.janzen@freepress.mb.ca
	jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Canadian Press