LEADING OFF.

Transport Minister David Collenette, to his credit, recently announced a $160-million financial aid package to Canada's airline industry. I say to his credit because in Collenette, finally we have a federal minister who can gain some attention from the Bank of Chretien and his loans officer, Paul "Purse Strings" Martin. Of course the cash injection came in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

Collenette's announcement came on Oct. 2. Hence it took a grand total of 21 days for this announcement to take place. In federalese, three weeks is a blink of an eye, a nano-second. Nothing happens in three weeks except perhaps for the designation of a particular focus group or steering committee. Chances are, in that time frame these entities wouldn't even be aware of what they were focusing on or steering towards. Yet, the airline money was allocated without any major stumbling blocks whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the agricultural sector waits empty-handed with the ineffective Lyle Vanclief being no closer to a solution for its floundering state than is the Hubble space telescope to the sun.

In making the announcement, Collenette said, "The industry has gone through a lot of disruptions in the last 10, 12 years...and we want to make sure we take this opportunity -- even though it was caused by a tragic event -- to try to I restructure the industry so that we do not, every two to three years, have a problem with airline capacity and airline finances."

It seems to me that the same type of throwing-good-money-after-bad dribble also comes from Vanclief, yet without the accompanying $160-million preamble. With this coming in the wake of a multi-billion-dollar injection into Quebec-based airline manufacturer Bombardier, it certainly leaves our agrarian friends and family with a harsh, envious sense of reality that airplanes cannot be grown, only manufactured.

That much of the aforementioned airline disruptions were caused by any combination of government incompetence and labor greed appears to be by the way. Indeed if they were caused by such "manageable" affairs as weather and commodity pricing then perhaps they'd be left to suffer the consequences as do our friends in the agriculture sector.

Of course there are those who will say that the airline shutdown and hence temporary revenue cessation was only done so because of government intervention. Fair enough. But an action such as this is equally as omnipotent as is an inaction, such as is the case in the ag sector. I mean, the Americans shut down the air space, so do the Canadians. The Americans offer vastly superior farm subsidies, the Canadians offer excuses translated through Lyle Vanclief.

Not for one minute am I suggesting to throw good money after bad. Indeed, some serious revisions need to be made at the farmgate to remain competitive. But certainly there's a solution that someone smarter than I at the federal level can accommodate. Perhaps even Mr. Vanclief.

Keith Moen, Editor