BEAUSEJOUR, Man. (Staff) – Manitoba farmers and the provincial crop insurance corporation are finding themselves playing a waiting game until the federal budget is released at the end of the month.
The board of directors and staff of the Manitoba Crop Insurance Corporation clocked in five days and about 2,000 kilometres last week talking to farmers about what could happen to coverage, depending on what happens to the Western Grain Transportation Act in the federal budget.
For Paul McIntosh, who grows wheat, canola and alfalfa seed near Lac du Bonnet, Man., the game has gone too far into overtime. The fate of the transportation subsidy and its effects on his business “are all unknowns going into a spring when … I’m supposed to be starting to actually pay for some of the products I’m going to use, and I’m supposed to be starting to borrow money for the coming spring.
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“It sort of makes it difficult to do any planning,” McIntosh said. “It’s just way too late for the farmers.”
Neil Hamilton, director of research for MCIC, told farmers they likely won’t receive information about support levels until the end of March.
Hard reality
Although individual productivity indexes and bushel coverages will be ready by this weekend, crucial numbers tied to what will happen to the WGTA subsidy won’t be available until the budget is released.
“The cold, hard reality is, if the WGTA is eliminated, the support levels are going to go down fairly significantly,” Hamilton said. He estimated they could decrease by $25 to $30 per tonne for wheat and barley, depending on how money is paid.
Herb Sulkers, also with MCIC, told producers they could talk to their crop insurance agents to get information available to date, and do their calculations based on what could happen.
According to crop insurance contracts, MCIC has to provide coverage information by March 31.
