ritz

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz

There was a lot of discussion in the Ag Sector this week over the fallout from the federal budget and the program changes at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Federal Ag Minister Gerry Ritz says his department is analyzing what they do well, doing more of that, and pushing aside programs that are no longer hitting the target.

Some of the changes we are hearing about are planned cuts to the pasture program and the PFRA’s shelterbelt program. "These are systems that go back over a century," Ritz said. "Farmers don't farm the same as they did, and to say that community pastures can not be run in an efficient way by somebody else would be a bad statement."

The federal pastures, 60 of which are in Saskatchewan, would be turned back to the provinces.

As for the SPARC Research Station in Swift Current, Ritz says there are no planned cuts there at this point. "There's always attrition, there's always changes that come and go, but we continue to analyze and make sure that what we are doing is delivering the best results for Canadian producers," he added.

This week, 5500 public service employees in various departments received notice their jobs could be affected as a result of last month's federal budget.

Ritz says this is a transformation process, adding that over the next three years, individuals will be transferred to other areas of expertise.