ST. ANDREWS-BY-THE-SEA, N.B. — Prairie farmers whose planting season was washed out by this year’s floods can expect an announcement of government help soon, ministers said July 8.
After a federal-provincial agriculture ministers’ meeting, federal minister Gerry Ritz said details of the extent of the disaster are coming from provincial capitals and he will quickly go to federal Treasury Board and finance department officials with a request for aid.
“The assessments have been done at the provincial level,” he said.
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“We now have them on our plate at the federal level. We run through them and then I approach my Treasury Board and finance (department) with the numbers that will be allocated. We’re within days and weeks of making an announcement.”
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said exact numbers have been late being calculated because the province extended the deadline for reporting on crop insurance and unseeded acres claims.
“We won’t know the number of acres for awhile yet but really, it’s Gerry that has to go through the process,” he said. “I’m hoping in the next week or two we will have some kind of announcement for producers.”
It could come either through AgriRecovery or the Disaster Financial Assistance program, which is broader than agriculture and is operated through emergency measures bureaucracy. It can be faster than Agri-Recovery announcements, operates under a formula and increases the federal contribution as damage assessments become higher.
Ritz said the provinces would prefer the disaster financial assistance program because it would reduce their contribution and wouldn’t require a political decision to trigger Agri- Recovery.
