CALGARY – The $18 million feed freight assistance program could be in jeopardy when Ottawa starts crossing items off its agriculture budget.
For British Columbia poultry and livestock producers, curtailing the program means it’ll cost more to stay in business.
“At a time when cattle and hog prices are dropping like a rock, we’re dropping feed freight assistance very quickly too,” said Mack Bryson, program director of the livestock feed board in Surrey.
“It will hurt a lot of people and the ones that it will hurt the worst are the cattle feeders and hog producers,” said Bryson.
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Feed freight assistance equalizes the cost of buying feed in grain-deficient areas by covering some of the shipping costs. Each region receives a different share of the subsidy depending on distance from the grain source.
$18 million cap
Bryson said the total feed freight assistance program was capped at $18 million. B.C.’s share was limited to $4.75 million.
The federal government paid out $6 million for the 1993-94 crop year on 590,000 tonnes of feed for B.C.
“They honored all the shipments,” said Bryson.
Jake Janzen, president of the B.C. Federation of Agriculture and a hog producer, said the feed freight assistance program should be considered a companion to the proposed whole-farm safety net.
Sharply reducing the program might force B.C. to buy less domestic feed because cheaper alternate grains like corn could be bought from the United States.
Reduce consumption
“Canada is really struggling to preserve its grain industry and it seems counterproductive to do something that would reduce the consumption of Canadian grain,” Janzen said.
B.C.’s agricultural income is six percent of Canadian agriculture, but receives two percent of the share of federal program money.
“It’s one way of maintaining some kind of equity in the way federal funds are distributed. If they take it away, the inequity will be enhanced even more,” he said.
Sandy McCurrach of Kamloops raises commercial turkeys and feeds cattle. He said losing the assistance program will add more to already high costs.
“It’s not the end of the earth, but it is another increase in the cost of doing business,” he said.
Now, feed grain buyers in the Kamloops and Armstrong areas receive $4.50 a tonne under the program, but would get nothing under proposed changes.
Realizing there is a huge national debt, McCurrach accepts cuts as a fact.
“As long as cuts are done fairly and everybody shares the load, I think it will be accepted,” he said.
