LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Alberta pork producers should soon receive cheques for the final transition payments following the end of the red meat tripartite stabilization program.
Under terms of the program closure in 1994, producers are eligible for $3.07 per hog.
Albertans should get their money this spring, said Jack Kali-svaart, vice-chair of the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation, the pro-vince’s monopoly hog marketer. The provincial portion of this money is about $1.50 per hog sold in the last nine months of 1994.
Ottawa banked its half of the $3.07 in an industry development fund for promotion and research.
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In every pork producing pro-vince but Alberta, farmers opted to put the entire share of their transition payment into the development fund. Farmers are offered alternative protection with the Net Income Stabilization Account.
Alberta said NISA may be seen as trade distorting by other countries, particularly the U.S., and could lead to retaliatory border tariffs.
Hogs, sheep and cattle are not covered by NISA in Alberta.
“Alberta won’t include any additional commodities for NISA coverage until there are changes to the program,” said Lloyd Andruchow of Alberta Agriculture’s central program planning division.
The Alberta government offers the Farm Income Stability Program, which provides relief for those whose total farm income has slipped below 70 percent of a three-year margin.
