Whether it’s temporary foreign workers, protecting property rights or preserving farmland for the future, candidates in the Highwood disagree on the biggest issue facing producers in the area.
What they can agree on, is the importance of ensuring Alberta’s agriculture sector remains healthy into the future.
“In the last several years Alberta Agriculture has done a good job of helping farmers and producers to diversify and do value added whether at the farm or within the province,” said Carrie Fischer, Progressive Conservative candidate. “I think we just need to continue and enhance those areas or where producers feel that it’s necessary.”
The biggest issue she has seen facing producers and agricultural businesses is the lack of workers and recent changes to the temporary foreign workers program.
“Based on my experience for the last several months I think, for Highwood specific, it would be making sure they’ve got access to employees that enable them to carry on,” she said.
Fischer said the Province needs to ensure producers and agri-businesses are able to access the temporary foreign workers program when they need them. While it may be a federal program, she said the system needs to be tailed for Alberta’s unique needs, particularly when the economy is booming and workers are scarce.
Wildrose candidate Wayne Anderson said agricultural issues haven’t resonated much on the campaign trail so far.
However, he said the biggest issue farmers and ranchers are facing is property rights.
Anderson said the Wildrose Party would repeal the Land Stewardship Act, which he says seriously infringes on the rights of landowners.
“People don’t have any property rights, the government can come in and seize and take them without proper compensation for anybody,” he said. “What we want to do is we want to provide fairness and clarity to farmers and ranchers regarding their access to their use of land, water and other private property.”
Anderson said the government’s role is to basically provide a positive business environment for producers and agribusinesses.
“What we really need to do is remove artificial production barriers or marketing distortions,” he said.
Anderson also said the Province needs a water use strategy to ensure adequate supplies of water for agriculture and municipalities.
For Alberta Party candidate Joel Windsor, the biggest agricultural issue in the Highwood is maintaining an arable land base in the face of development. He said it’s essential to have a plan in place to protect agricultural land into the future.
“To me, agriculture should be one of those industries that we consider as an opportunity for diversification so we’re not just stuck on oil and gas all the time,” he said. “We are unique in that we have lots of arable land available to us in Alberta unless we let it erode away from ourselves too quickly with significant development.”
Windsor said this is important to ensure the Province is able to maintain the agricultural sector as an important part of the economy in the future as oil and gas supplies dwindle.
As the population continues to grow and more development comes to communities in Highwood, Anderson said the Wildrose Party would work to preserve farmland.
“We want to put together an agriculture land preservation strategy to avoid the premature fragmentation of agricultural lands from other uses,” he said.
Yet, he said the Wildrose Party does not support a “central planning” model with regional plans forced on municipalities. He said it’s up to local municipalities to plan for land uses into the future.
Fischer said regional plans could work to help protect agricultural land, however, if elected MLA she said she would support what municipalities have planned for land within their jurisdiction.
NDP candidate Leslie Mahoney and Green Party Candidate Martin Blake could not be reached for comment before press time.
