Twenty-six people representing business, government, farming and ranching attended the provincially-hosted farm freedom and safety consultation meeting in Brooks on July 27.
Provincial officials, including Devin Dreeshen, minister of Agricultural and Forestry, are holding consultations to hear what Albertans want included in the new Farm Freedom and Safety Act which will replace Bill 6, a controversial farm safety act that mandated Workers Compensation Board (WCB) coverage for farm and rancher workers.
At the time the NDP government introduced the bill without any public consultations. It led to protests throughout the province in 2015 and 2016.
The consistent messages heard at the meeting focused on safety matters and farmers being free to arrange their own insurance.
“The biggest thing we heard loud and clear was when it came to insurance farmers want to be able to have a choice. Through the current system you’re forced to use WCB,” said Dreeshen following the meeting.
He said it was nice to hear people want to choose their own private insurance which most farmers have and without having to use WCB means they won’t have to pay two insurance premiums.
“That was one of the main issues we heard,” he said.
“Today people want choices when it comes to WCB or private insurance,” said Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Glasgo.
She found it interesting that many young farmers contributed to the two hour consultation.
“We had a bunch of young farm kids as well as farmers with diverse backgrounds, whether it was livestock, dairy, grain. It was a really good discussion that we had in Brooks,” she said.
Part of the discussion turned to teaching food and agriculture in the classroom.
Over the past few months organizations have been bad mouthing farmers and have been telling Canadians to stop eating beef while TV broadcasts are slamming the industry.
Cindy Slenders, president of the Brooks and District Chamber of Commerce and a beef producer, said the recently aired story is based on climate change and was from a “poorly researched sustainability perspective.”
“Speaking as a meat producer, cattle graze on land you don’t put into cropland. Not all land is suitable for crops,” she said.
Slenders said at the meeting youth urged the government to include food and its production through the education curriculum.
“It was about teaching ag in the classroom and doing a curriculum review to ensure it is part of the programs of study because agriculture is such a big part of Alberta,” she said.
“Food doesn’t come from a grocer. It comes from farms.”
Continuing with education Dreeshen said farmers spoke about education for common sense safety, such as ensuring a ladder is secure, that can be implemented on farms.
“It’s something that we’ve heard at other consultations as well,” he said.
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