CALGARY – Alberta continues to develop its own version of a national farm safety net program and could offer it as a provincial program if no agreement on national income protection is attained.
“If indeed, federal negotiations break down it is our intention to keep moving along with GATT 70,” said the province’s agriculture minister Walter Paszkowski. Ottawa set Sept. 30 as a deadline for a federal-provincial agreement but negotiations continue.
Paszkowski said he is confident Alberta and the federal government can reach a satisfactory settlement.
For Alberta, GATT 70 is the program of choice. It carries farmer and government contributions and kicks in when provincial farm income falls 70 percent below a rolling historic average.
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“We’re still optimistic that there will be a safety net program in place to cover the 1995 taxation year,” said Paszkowski.
Finding a universal program that suits all participating provinces is a large task.
“We feel we want to go as far as we can with the national program. We have to keep in mind that it’s very difficult to develop a truly national safety net program,” said Paszkowski.
“We have provinces that export very little or none and we have provinces such as Alberta that the majority of production is for export. Consequently, issues such as countervail become a lot more focused in a province like Alberta than it does where domestic production is the issue,” he said.
