While federal politicians see the farm crisis with rose-coloured glasses, Saskatchewan's politicians are seeing nothing but red ink.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief announced an additional $170 million in aid for Canadian farmers on Thursday. The pledge also contains a commitment to cover up to 70 per cent of farmers' losses, otherwise known as negative margins.

Vanclief insists new farm-income projections are accurate, even though those figures predict a $729-million swing in Saskatchewan's total net farm income, from minus $89 million in July, to over $640 million in October.

Alf Robinson, Sask. Wheat Pool delegate for the Weyburn area, said the federal government's new income projections have no practical purpose.

"The federal government is saying there's increased farm income but there's no evidence of that in the rural community or on the farm. There is a lot of strength in cattle, but every other commodity is down from a year ago. The reality on the farm is that it's worse than a year ago, and it's certainly no better than July," said Robinson.

Tom Richardson, Agriculture Canada's director general, farm income policies and programs, disagrees with the conventional Western wisdom. Richardson says a bumper crop, rising prices for cattle and increasing access to NISA funds are all factors behind the federal government's revised total net income figures for Saskatchewan producers. Richardson provided specifics on the province's revised farm income projections: $149 million for increased durum yields, $125 million for increasing cattle prices, $238 million for increased access to NISA accounts, with the rest accruing through various yield increases from a variety of crops.

"The figures are bogus and not accurate," Deputy Premier Dwain Lingenfelter said on Friday.

"There's not a shred of evidence to show a turn around since July. The $125 million in income from cattle would mean we'd have to have 75,000 additional head, and our estimate on NISA is some 10s of millions less than what they say it is. They say there's close to $200 million in AIDA in Saskatchewan alone, and we have no indication it's anywhere close to $200 million."

In addition, SWP delegate Robinson said the federal bureaucrats' NISA numbers are impractical.

"Practically, the people who need help the most don't have anything in their NISA account - most have depleted it over time and many younger farmers never had a chance to contribute. In so far as helping out the younger farmers, it's of absolutely no benefit, especially in the southeast corner where there haven't been favourable crops for the last three years," said Robinson.

Ironically, an $85-million increase in NISA income supplied by the Saskatchewan government in June, was factored into the federal government's October figures, said Ag Canada's Richardson.

To take advantage of the $170 million in new money, Vanclief said the provinces will have to ante up for their piece of the pie - normally 40 cents for every 60 cents supplied by the federal government.

In his initial reaction last week, Premier Romanow ruled out the possibility of making further contributions to AIDA and on Friday, after a meeting with farm groups, the provincial government formally refused to participate further in the AIDA program.

Premier Romanow has been arguing for months that Saskatchewan dedicates more money per capita toward agriculture than any other province. He maintains the province can not afford to fund any more increases in agriculture spending, and argues the federal government must step up to the plate and assume its responsibility to secure the sector.

But in a report released Nov. 2, provincial auditor Wayne Strelioff stipulates total provincial agriculture spending has slipped from a high of $1.2 billion in 1992, to $323 million in 1999 - a 73 per cent decrease in provincial agriculture funding over the past seven years.

Further, over the past few weeks Lingenfelter has insisted the premier and provincial delegation were not aware of Ag Canada's new numbers prior to their trip to Ottawa. But Vanclief and his officials specifically identified two Sask. Ag. and Food farm-income forecasters, Dave Boehm and Jason Johnes, as participants in the discussions leading up to the October projections.

Alternately, Vanclief's pledge for $170 million in additional farm-assistance funding is a far cry from the $1.3-billion requested by Premiers Romanow and Doer. Now, the mood in the Saskatchewan has Romanow cryptically warning of a potential rebirth of a new separatist movement in the West.

Despite Romanow's warnings Vanclief stuck to his lines during last Thursday's news conference: "They knew full-well there was not $1.3 billion available," he said.

The agriculture minister's terse rebuke to Romanow and Doer's lobbying effort came only two days after Finance Minister Paul Martin announced as much as $95.5 billion in surpluses could accumulate to the federal government over the next five years.

On Thursday, Vanclief said he was surprised with Romanow's initial refusal to participate further in the AIDA program, but he did admit, "by far, most of the hurt is in the Western provinces."

The federal agriculture minister also pledged to be in Saskatchewan later this month to discuss the farm crisis further.

But SWP delegate Robinson is not impressed with Vanclief's pledge to come west.

Our "portion is $40 or 50 million, so the $170 million Vanclief is talking about is a red herring as far as Manitoba and Saskatchewan are concerned. I think Vanclief is just very disappointing, in so far as being an agricultural minister for all of Canada. The only reason he's coming out here is at gun point, and he's already made up his mind that he's not going to listen to anyone. So he's just going through a little charade. For people like me, regardless of whose figures are right or wrong, the practicality of it from a farm point of view is that there's no real difference on the farm - and that cannot be denied."

In response to the rising levels of anger and alienation spreading throughout rural Saskatchewan, Lingenfelter said unless Vanclief meets with real farmers, his visit is not going to mean much.

"He's got to get out there and put on a pair of jeans and wander around and have coffee with them. Don't believe my numbers or his - come and talk to the people affected."