APAS ready to work with government, sees opportunity in minority

Like most people examining the results of Monday’s federal election, Todd Lewis said it looks like more of the same.

“We expect things to operate basically how they have for the past couple years and really, in a minority parliament, there are opportunities for agriculture,” said Lewis, the president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS).

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will form a minority government, just as they did after the 2019 election.

Lewis said there’s an opportunity to work with all parties to get policy through and the association will work with everyone and do the best it can.

At the forefront of Lewis’ mind are two private members’ bills that passed in the House of Commons during the last sitting, but died in the Senate when Parliament was dissolved for the election.

Lewis wants to see the bill regarding farm trespassing reintroduced, as well as the bill which would create an exemption in the carbon tax for fuels used in grain drying.

“We’re hoping there’s time going to be made for these important bills to be reintroduced and look forward to working with all parties and trying to see some improvements on policy for agriculture,” Lewis said.

The biggest thing with the Liberal government for farmers is the carbon tax, according to Lewis.

“We’ll continue to work to try and see if we can try to get some changes made there so that farmers won’t be hit as hard by the carbon tax,” he said.

Rural cell and Internet connectivity is another issue that was in all three main party platforms this election, and Lewis said it’s an important infrastructure piece that he’d like to see movement on.

To that end, Lewis wants to see that issue brought under one single ministry.

“Right now it’s split between a number of ministries and bureaucracies. So I think that would help if we had one minister that would be assigned to ensuring that we see better cell coverage and connectivity across not only Western Canada but the entire country,” said Lewis.

Overall, Lewis said APAS will work with whoever’s in power to get done what the association needs to be done.