It was a short and not so sweet visit to Boyle by Alberta’s agriculture and rural development minister.
About 30 people, some from as far away as Lac La Biche, came to the Boyle legion last Thursday to hear and speak to Verlyn Olson. He made a couple of other stops in the area to meet with local ag advisory boards.
In light of all the recent talk about a tight budget ahead, Olson focused on how this situation could mean a great opportunity for agriculture in this province.
“I go elsewhere to talk agriculture and I get blank looks because people simply think Alberta is strictly oil and gas,” explained Olson.
“Agriculture is the second largest industry in Alberta and the largest renewable resource in the province. We hear we have to get off our reliance on oil and gas, so I see this as a time of opportunity since things are taken as seriously when oil is at $100 per barrel.”
And that gives even more importance to the release just two months ago of the Rural Economic Action Plan – a report one year in the making filled with ways to create and support an environment for rural Alberta to succeed.
The first step of that plan is ensuring the necessary infrastructure is in place to support that next generation of farmers and rural areas, and that means a need for reliable Internet and wireless services.
“It makes it hard to attract and retain that next generation agricultural producer and bring other young people to rural areas without that access,” he said, while adding his department is looking into what can be done to improve in that area.
The other challenge Olson hoping to address is providing more ability for producers to raise capital, something traditional banks aren’t really interested in doing.
“(They) aren’t interested in long-term projects, but the AFSC (Agriculture Financial Services Corporation) has been fantastic in supporting producers,” he said.
Olson has hoped the provincial crown corporation could do more, but the high cost of land – up to $10,000 per acre in some areas of Alberta – is creating a huge barrier to entrepreneurs that want do business or expand their operations.
He would also like to see less siloing – sticking to a narrow scope of managing in a ministry – and more collaboration in breaking down those walls in order to create places in rural areas where young people will want to work and live.
Olson also spoke on the fight with the United States over Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) of meat.
They are presently waiting for the result of World Trade Organization appeal of a ruling that struck down COOL. Olson anticipates the appeal will come down in Canada’s favour again and the next step against the U.S. will be slapping on tariffs.
“Canada has made no bones about retaliating on U.S. goods. We have a list of 35 states that are the top traders with Canada and I don’t imagine they would like to see what a 100 per cent tariff on California wine would look like,” he stated.
“The U.S. packing industry is suing them, so we have lots of allies.”
Olson also added his more optimistic about COOL being changed than he was a year ago.
