Where did the money go? Eichler

NDP Minister of Agriculture Rosann Wowchuk’s claim that producers support the government’s cattle levy is greatly exaggerated, says PC Agriculture Critic Ralph Eichler. He said in fact, producers are telling him the low percentage of refund requests has more to do with poor communication by the NDP government.

“The Minister’s confidence is completely unfounded,” said Eichler.  “She claims the levy is supported by farmers because 75% did not file for a refund, when in reality, cattle producers were in the dark about the refund deadline.”

He said producers should have been kept in the loop about new procedures and important deadlines.

“The NDP thinks it’s okay to spend millions of tax dollars on pre-election government advertising,” said Eichler, “yet all they did to communicate the levy information to producers is plunk it onto a website and hope they would find it.”

Eichler also said the levy has raised an estimated $450,000 since its inception in September 2006, but has yet to fund a single project in Manitoba.  

“Since the BSE crisis in 2003, the NDP government has wasted nearly four years doing nothing to increase Manitoba’s slaughter capacity,” he said. “Between imposing a non-refundable levy without consultation and then back tracking when it realized its mistake, time and time again, the Minister and the NDP have horribly mismanaged Manitoba’s cattle industry.”

“No matter how much proof the Minister thinks she has that the NDP was ‘right’, we still have no slaughter capacity in Manitoba.”