The federal government has asked an organization that distributes farm business management information to producers to find more cost effective ways to fulfill its mandate.Greg Pearce, controller for the Canadian Farm Business Management Council, said four staff positions were recently eliminated at the council’s Ottawa office, including that of executive director Wendell Joyce. Board members are now looking for other ways to trim $1.1 million from the council’s annual operating budget, including eliminating popular programs.Under the agricultural policy framework, the council received $2.5 to $2.8 million a year from Agriculture Canada.When the APF was replaced with the new Growing Forward program, the council was told that a five-year $15 million funding agreement would be forthcoming.However, that agreement never materialized, and funding has been approved on a year-to-year basis for the past two years.In 2009, Agriculture Canada contributed $2.6 million to the council’s budget. This year, council officials have been asked to submit a thorough business plan outlining all programs and quantifying their effectiveness.Pearce said 2010 funding is contingent on the submission of the business plan, which will outline the council’s key initiatives and spending priorities.The council has requested federal funding of $1.5 million this year, but no decision is expected until the business plan has been approved, possibly in late June.Until then, the council will operate on a surplus of about $700,000, which was accumulated over the past 18 years.”We’re OK into July,” Pearce said.”Obviously, severance had a big impact (on the council’s finances), but other than that we’ve minimized just about everything including … staff and benefits and those types of things by basically contracting everything out. The plan now is just to hold everything together until we get our new direction approved and get some funding.”Pearce said designing a leaner council that requires less public funding will probably mean reducing programs and adopting a more business-like approach to program delivery.There will probably be a greater focus on web-based tools to deliver farm business products rather than in-person delivery.The council will also look for ways to generate additional revenue through partnerships, web advertising, fundraising and membership fees.”It was always supposed to be a very independent and objective delivery of farm business management programs, but the reality now is that we may have to go a little more commercial to continue to deliver our services at the same level.”The council’s mandate is to deliver farm business management products and services to primary producers. It also acts as a resource for farm business advisers.
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