Saturday, October 20, 2007

Conservative Party of Sask. Agriculture Policy

Yes! There is a Progressive Conservative Party of Sask. I guess there is some desire to keep the name alive but most of the troops are over at the Sask. Party! The agricultural policy seems to be mostly in the past for good reason.

AGRICULTURE POLICY
October 15th, 2007 Today, the PC Party of Saskatchewan begins its rollout of policy initiatives for the provincial election campaign. The PC Party believes it is appropriate that agriculture should be dealt with first as Saskatchewan is Canada’s largest agriculture province. Unlike the other parties who are totally preoccupied with buying voters with their own money, the PC Party believes in assisting Saskatchewan’s natural strengths to build the economy and so to benefit all of Saskatchewan’s citizens. Leader Rick Swenson says “the dollars we are committing to these policy announcements are sustainable long-term commitments well within the current budget of the province.”

The P.C. Party government worked with producers to bring about Saskatchewan’s first ethanol plant at Poundmaker Feedlot near Lanigan, Saskatchewan. We believe that strategy was correct then as it is today and would encourage community-based development of ethanol and biodiesel production along side intensive livestock operations. The PC Party has successfully used the tax system to make this a successful venture and would work with industry to make it happen again.
The PC Party has a long history of developing value-added agricultural enterprises in the province of Saskatchewan and believes today with the changing environment in marketing and transportation that it is absolutely crucial to expand these areas in the future. Therefore, a PC Party government would match dollars with private sector developers, cities of Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw and the Federal Government to bring an inland container port to Saskatchewan so that agriculture-value added processing and related industries can compete on the world stage.
The PC Party in the past through the development of GRIP and NISA programs fought for funding equality on the national level. We believe that the funding fairness is out of sync with reality in the current 60/40 funding formula split between the federal government and the provincial governments on disaster assistance. This formula must be changed to reflect Saskatchewan’s huge land base.
The PC Party government brought about the last large scale irrigation development along Lake Diefenbaker, the Saskatchewan River and the Qu’Appelle River systems. A PC Party government would commit to sustainable, long-term development of our water resources by committing a minimum of $10 million dollars per year over current funding levels split evenly between infill of existing projects and new construction.
Swenson also says, “we believe these policies will help return prosperity to producers in Saskatchewan through better opportunities and to help them do what they do best – grow food for the world.”

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