Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the committee for this opportunity to meet with you today.
I just want to give a little history of our association. We are a volunteer organization in which all the rural municipalities in this province are volunteer members. Our organization celebrated its hundredth anniversary along with the province in 2005, so we have been here for over a hundred years. Our members span the province, of course, giving us a broad perspective of the issues of importance to rural Saskatchewan. I would like to touch on a few issues that are of concern to us.
In the agriculture sector, farmers again will face negative incomes for 2006, for the fourth year in a row. Low commodity prices and high input costs are offsetting high-quality yields in this province this year. Drought in the southwest and floods in the northeast are devastating many of our producers. The announcement of changes in the CAIS program and crop insurance is welcome news to Saskatchewan. We need to separate business risk management programs, and disaster relief programs have to be separated. Our programs need to be defined, reliable, and bankable to provide stability to the producers of this province.
Value-added programs to ensure producer involvement and ownership are vital to rural growth and to helping the producers' income crisis. Federal initiatives to encourage producer-ownership should be expanded. Value-added enterprises can foster growth and profitability for both farmers and their communities in rural Saskatchewan.
Biofuels present opportunities. All of Canada has the potential to benefit from the biofuels industry. The greatest achievement—or benefit, if you want to call it that—will be clean air for all Canadians. In rural Canada, the biofuels industry has the potential to increase demand for agricultural production, strengthen the rural economy, and provide much needed employment in rural Canada.
A healthy rural economy also means major economic benefit to all of Canada. Technical expertise and building materials would be for the most part sourced from our large urban centres.
We see three challenges that exist for the federal government in developing and implementing policies and incentives: ensuring the participation of agricultural producers in the ownership of biofuels facilities—a program such as BOPI is a good start; ensuring that facilities are located in rural communities; and ensuring that facilities are located in Canada rather than just south of the 49th parallel, with the raw product to fuel those facilities being shipped from Canada. In order to take advantage of the opportunities that exist, we must act as soon as possible or they will be lost forever. Time is of the essence.
On Western Economic Diversification Canada, in rural Canada the traditional sectors of agriculture, forestry, and fishing have changed dramatically in recent years. Other areas have to be developed to diversify the rural economy.
Western Economic Diversification has been a valuable program for rural Saskatchewan. Many successful economic development projects have benefited from seed money received through the program. Examples of this are Action Swift Current; the Exploring Saskatchewan's Nuclear Future Conference; the Potash Interpretative Centre in Esterhazy; and the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission's canola biodiesel research. Various other economic development studies have also received seed money from this program.
The Clearing the Path initiative is a joint initiative between SARM and SUMA to encourage development and growth in rural communities. As our population and levels of service decline, we are encouraging communities and neighbouring municipalities to work together to attract and build economic development. The Clearing the Path committee has received funding and is in the process of hiring three resource people to assist in planning Clearing the Path economic initiatives in these communities. These people work with groups such as your regional economic development authorities to develop plans and working relationships between different groups and municipalities.
Infrastructure is my final one. Good infrastructure is vital to the economy in rural Saskatchewan. A large area in rural Saskatchewan does not have access to primary-weight highways or roads, which puts us at a disadvantage in many communities. One of the key recommendations of Clearing the Path is to establish a province-wide primary-weight corridor system. Municipalities do not have the financial resources to complete the primary road system on their own. They need help to complete construction of the corridor system from the federal and provincial governments in the form of an expanded prairie grain roads program.
The federal government has contributed $106 million to the Saskatchewan portion of the prairie grain roads program. This contribution has been levered to contributions from municipalities and the province, with the result being over $215 million invested in roads, both highway and municipal, in the province. The announcement of a new PGRP program is essential to ensure that the corridor is completed and our communities can achieve their full potential.
In conclusion, we agree that if Canada is to prosper in the future, we must be proactive and prepared. Rural Saskatchewan is a vital part of Canada and its economy. However, it has unique needs. Rural communities require targeted financial assistance as we work on diversifying our economies and maintaining and improving our infrastructure.
Thank you for this opportunity.