BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Kings West MLA Leo Glavine says people need to ask the government why it’s “missed the boat” and deepened the crisis facing pork farmers.

“The story for me now is, the transitioning is causing greater pain than any farmer realized.

“The real crime is now showing up.”

Pork Nova Scotia, he says, gave the province a three to five year plan to move farmers from simple processing operations to value-added options. Instead, the province said late in 2006 it was done supporting the industry.

Now, Glavine says, farmers are facing the “perfect storm:” the highest Canadian dollar in 30 years, the lowest prices in a decade and an industry struggling through transition.

“It’s mind-boggling even the most inefficient bureaucracy in a government department can’t handle 32 farmers. It’s a huge deficiency.”

Glavine brought the deputy minister of agriculture to Kings farms earlier this month, gathered a group of growers together for a meeting and met with Larsens plant manager Mike Lee October 19.

“I’ve been to two different meetings where farmers have left, completely broken down - they just can’t relate the hardships.”

He knows of one farmer last week the department had to give feed to; other farmers are on notice their feed companies won’t extend credit.

Only now, Glavine says, is the government putting a fieldworker “on the ground.”

“The government needs to provide farmers getting out with a debt write-down, so much on the dollar. Farmers need to be assured their animals can be properly fed until they’re out of the barns.

“For the less than 20 hog growers that will be left next year, there needs to be support.”

Glavine says all Nova Scotians need to “hold government accountable for a dignified end.

“If the government had listened to Pork Nova Scotia and people on the ground, we wouldn’t have this deepening crisis.”