Agriculture - A Vision for the Future

Canadian Alliance Agriculture Team Releases ASAP Task Force Report

Thursday, April 20, 2000

Dawson Creek - Today Jay Hill MP for Prince George-Peace River held a press conference to release the Canadian Alliance agriculture report from the Action for Struggling Agriculture Producers (ASAP) Task Force.

On January 12, 1999 Canadian Alliance ASAP Chairman Gerry Ritz, MP Battlefords-Lloydminster and Mr. Hill held a meeting in Farmington, BC to hear from BC Peace Farmers. The results of that meeting and months of direct consultations with farmers struggling with the lowest incomes since the Great Depression are outlined in the report.

Although Mr. Hill is not an Agriculture Critic for the Canadian Alliance he elected to assist with the unveiling of the ASAP Report to ensure that the PC Peace was not once again the forgotten corner of British Columbia.

In November 1999, the ASAP tour was struck by the Canadian Alliance Caucus in response to the income crisis facing Canadian agriculture and the lack of concern and action for this crisis by the federal government.

"The ASAP tour conducted 70 meetings and heard from over 3,500 farmers in five different provinces. The policy suggestions from farmers contained in the ASAP report are the views of producers who attended ASAP meetings," noted Hill.

"At all our meetings producers told us that the government has no plan for agriculture in Canada. Farmers feel that they have been forgotten by the party in power," observed Ritz.

"The time has long past for farmers to be given the same consideration as HRDC grants for Wal-Mart and fountains in the Prime Minister's riding," concluded Hill.