WINNIPEG – Class is out for the Manitoba Agricultural Training Project.
Lack of federal funding sounded the death knell for the organization, which provided courses for farmers since 1989 on topics from marketing to computer accounting to production issues.
The organization received half its $700,000 budget from the federal human resources department and the rest from Agriculture Canada.
The money paid teachers, rented facilities and covered costs for distance education methods for about 100 courses. About 1,200 farmers and farm employees participated in courses last year.
“There were certainly cuts happening everywhere so we weren’t the only group of people to have training dollars cut in this budget,” said Eleanor Menzies, who managed the project.
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Keystone Agricultural Producers, a Manitoba farm lobby group which administered the project and lobbied for continued funding, learned in late March that the human resources department would no longer contribute.
Because the other half of the funding was also uncertain, KAP terminated the program.
Mac McCorquodale of KAP, said the Farm Business Management Council of the agriculture department recently indicated that some funds for training would be available for another year. KAP will help decide how the money will be spent.
It will likely be known this week how much money will be available and the type of training offered.
