As the pace of applications picks up for the government’s low farm income program, agriculture minister Chuck Strahl has a clear and stern message for those who qualify for help.
Don’t consider it simply a way to buy more time on the farm to keep doing what you have been doing, hoping things get better. Instead, consider it the last best chance to figure out a way to get back on your financial feet.
“If they are in a situation where they are below the poverty line, then we will help them in the interim,” the minister told the Senate agriculture committee studying rural poverty last week. “However, they have to do something different in the long run. They cannot continue to do the same old, same old. This is not a year-after-year plan.”
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In an Oct. 5 interview, Strahl said the business plan advice and skills training requirement that come with the money are meant to help chronically low income farmers get out of their poverty rut.
He said some may decide to leave the industry but it is not meant to be an exit program.
“Some may decide to transit out of the business, saying they don’t see a way forward,” said Strahl. “Who knows? I’m not trying to exit people but I am trying to get them to make business decisions that will not leave them stuck in the rut.”
The program, based on 2005 tax returns, is designed to raise farm family net income to $25,000, or $15,000 for individual farmers. To be eligible, the farm family total income had to total at least $50,000 from all sources.
Applications must be in by the end of October.
Critics have attacked the gross income threshold, arguing it excludes some of the most needy rural families.
Strahl defended it as an appropriate threshold because it is an attempt to get money to “bona fide” commercial farmers who are trying to make most of their income from the farm.
He acknowledged there is pressure to lower the threshold.
“I had one call to make it $10,000,” he said. “Even I make $10,000 on my hobby farm and all I’ve got is 15 or 20 white faces running around there. That’s not a farm.”
However, Strahl said he has no plans to introduce a gross income threshold into other government farm support programs.
“I think most Canadians and most farmers say ‘I want the serious farmers that are trying to make a living to have access to programming and income stabilization’, ” he said. “But I don’t have a means test in mind (for other programs). There’s nothing like that ever been talked about to me nor have I suggested it to anybody in the bureaucracy.”
During his Senate appearance, Strahl also defended himself from criticisms by Liberal senator Catherine Callbeck, who said the Options program needs an appeal process.
Strahl said there is no need for an appeal because the rules are simple and not subject to arbitrary decision. If tax returns show net income of less than $15,000 single or $25,000 family, they qualify up to that level.
“There is nothing to appeal,” he said. “There is no discretion as to whether or not they should get the money. They just apply.”
