August 18, 1999
Fort Qu’Appelle Times
Box 940
Fort Qu’Appelle, SK
S0G 1S0
Re: Reform failing its rural Canadian base of support
Dear Editor:
Since when does the editor of the Fort Qu’Appelle Times allow Lorne Nystrom to dictate his editorial? The totally false statements made in the editorial really have no other explanation. The article, "Reform failing its rural Canadian base of support" appeared in the August 10, 1999 edition of the Fort Qu’Appelle Times.
For Mr. Nystrom and the Fort Qu’Appelle Times to accuse Reform of not paying attention to agriculture issues in Parliament is laughable if it weren’t so utterly false.
It was Reform, not the NDP or Liberals, that used their rare opportunities to make the Agriculture Crisis the main topic of debate at the first available date in the last session of Parliament. It was Reform, not the NDP or Liberals, that forced the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture to deal with the crisis on the prairies. It was Reform that surveyed farmers almost a year ago to determine what the solutions to the agriculture crisis were and then immediately took those results to the Agriculture Minister.
Reform had in place both a long-term and short-term policy on the farm income crisis, approved by the entire caucus, almost a year ago. In fact Reform is the only party to have a detailed agriculture policy approved by its membership for the past 10 years.
Acreage payments and immediate tax reductions have been consistently advocated by Reform during this farm crisis and for the editor to suggest that this is not feasable without deficit financing or taxing the rich shows a total lack of understanding of our government’s finances. It is estimated that next years federal surplus will be anywhere between 5 and 15 billion dollars. I think that is more than enough to cover the cost of support programs for farmers.
Reform MPs were the only ones to hold a series of 15 meetings around the province on the agriculture issue this year. I personally have put out many press releases on agriculture issues and to my knowledge they have not appeared in your paper. A brief check of my web site
www.reform.ca/breitkreuzg would make it absolutely clear how false the editorial was. Liberal MPs from Toronto have accused Reform of giving too much attention to agriculture issues since we were elected.The editorial also suggests Reform was silent when the Crow Freight Rate disappeared. If the government had listened to the Reform Party when the Crow Freight Subsidy was being eliminated and put the money being saved from the Crow Rate into a "Trade Adjustment Distortion Program" (TDAP), there would be 4 billion dollars in that program today to help farmers.
I enjoy reading editorials in newspapers throughout the province as they provide a forum for discussion and an expression of opinion. However, I do get concerned when editorial staff write on topics they have not thoroughly researched or understand. Is it not the responsibility of our newspapers to provide an informed opinion and not one based on misinformation?
Sincerely,
Garry Breitkreuz, MP
Yorkton - Melville