Contemporary farm income support policy in Canada: the case of prairie agriculture since 1996. (Special Issue: Agricultural policies in transition.)

摘要

This paper investigates the degree of provincialism, autonomous policy formulation and program implementation, in farm income support in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta after 1995. It finds that of the three prairie provinces only Alberta undertook autonomous program creation. Correspondingly, Alberta bargained for provincial discretion in federal-provincial negotiations, while Manitoba and Saskatchewan insisted that the federal government is to assume primary responsibility for farm income support. The direction that each province took in regards to program implementation and in federal-provincial negotiations stemmed to a considerable extent from the policy-making structures the provinces created in order to engage their farm communities in policy development. In Alberta additional factors were the strong influence of rural representatives in its government and its rich public purse. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan the comparatively small government budgets and the governments' desire not to run large budget deficits were other relevant factors.