There is no shortage of suggestions for ways Saskatchewan could help cattle producers with cash flow problems.
Last week, the opposition Saskatchewan Party, the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan all presented their wish lists.
They contain some similarities, including a call for cash advances – an idea to which agriculture minister Clay Serby has been lukewarm.
He has said that’s because assisting an industry that might have to be downsized is not good financial strategy.
Last week Serby said it’s also because the province shouldn’t have to pay for a program like that by itself.
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The Saskatchewan Party and SSGA proposals call on the province to pony up, while APAS wants a federal-provincial program funded largely by Ottawa.
“We’ve been working on a package with the federal government and the provinces for the better part of eight weeks, talking about cash advance programs and how they would work for the industry,” Serby said in an interview.
But any program the province undertook on its own would add several hundred million dollars to the provincial debt.
The Sask Party requested a low-interest cash advance of $300 per cow, bison or elk and $25 per sheep, to be repaid through a check-off system when the animal goes to market.
Agriculture critic Donna Harpauer estimated the total payout would be as much as $300 million.
She said the program wouldn’t cost the government anything, but Serby said the typical loan losses on a program like this are between 10 and 15 percent.
The SSGA asked for $200 on yearlings and feeders owned on May 20, with repayment upon their sale.
The organization also wants interest-free loans of $200 per cow, to be administered by the banks but backed by the provincial government and payable two years after the borders completely reopen. It also wants the elimination of education tax on property and a tax cut on other inputs like fuel, power and telephone costs.
APAS proposed an interest-free cash advance program, backstopped by a revenue deficiency program similar to the one just ended for feeder cattle.
The program would be based on a producer’s so-called Olympic five-year average (three years used after high and low ones removed) and it would apply to animals sold between May 20, 2003 and May 20, 2004.
APAS president Terry Hildebrandt said normal culling of breeding animals must continue. The meat should be distributed to food banks or as food aid.
“We’re asking the federal government to pick up all the costs,” Hildebrandt said.
The final plank in the APAS program is a low-interest loan program to help the industry restructure.
Both Hildebrandt and Serby said there clearly won’t be enough money in the business risk management portion of the agricultural policy framework to compensate cattle producers.
