Saskatchewan's NDP deputy agriculture critic is calling on the provincial government for immediate action in the southwest due to drought conditions.
Five RMs in the region, Enterprise, Maple Creek, Fox Valley, Waverley, and Big Stick, have all declared states of emergency due to drought within the last month.
Trent Wotherspoon, who also serves as the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation critic, is visiting the RM of Big Stick to speak with local politicians and producers on Wednesday. He's hopeful the province begins listening to the suffering producers' plea for help.
"We need urgent action by the province to work directly with those local leaders and with producers at this critical time, both for the short-term emergency-type measures as well as the longer-term improvements," he said. "Obviously the province and the feds have to work together on this front."
He believes the provincial government's response to the five RMs that have declared states of emergency has been slow and dismissive of the severity of the conditions.
"These producers are the foundation of our provincial economy, but they're so critical to their communities and regions as well. We're really talking about big impacts here. The province needs to recognize just how bleak it is there and the severity of the situation. Then start working with producers right now, recognizing that the current set of programs they have in place aren't adequate to rise to the challenge that producers are facing."
Wotherspoon said the NDP have been calling on the provincial government to form a drought action committee with officials from the rural municipalities experiencing severe drought, producers in the area, and agricultural organizations.
"From that, there needs to be a coordination of the measures that will support producers and ranchers and farms now and some of the longer-term fixes as well," he said. "We need to improve those business risk management programs, build some programs to assist producers right now on the feed front that can't access feed or water."
They're also advocating for a 10-year tax deferral for producers forced to sell their breeding stock due to the drought and for the province and federal governments to pay their share of premiums for livestock business risk management programs.
"They're (local producers) doing everything they can and more, but we're nine years on in drought and they're facing a really bleak situation without food and water, and the crops are burnt up," he said.