CALGARY — The signup date for the Alberta Gross Revenue Insurance Plan has been extended from April 30 to May 20.
Bob Klassen of Ferintosh, who leads a group called Producers for Fair Insurance, says that extension doesn’t clear up all the questions far-mers had about the legitimacy of the changes. His group wanted the extension to determine if the 1994 contract was valid, because the GRIP contract says they are to be informed of changes by March 1.
“If we don’t accept the 1994 as offered then what are we really signing? That’s the issue, not is there enough time. So the delay was there to sort out where the contract is at,” he said in an interview.
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“Adding 20 days in May is not like having 20 days in March because in March you do your planning. In May you do your seeding,” said Klassen.
His group is threatening to file a statement of claim in court to get their questions answered. But he said they are still willing to negotiate with the board of the Agricultural Financial Services Corp., which administers the GRIP.
Rick McConnell, of the corporation, said that since 1991 when Alberta signed onto the program, three extensions have been granted.
“A lot of the changes that are happening this year are just standard changes that happen every year in the program,” said McConnell.
Changes would have come under the 1993 rules anyway, he said. The biggest complaint about the 1994 contract is confusion over lower coverage.
The coverage changes as calculations for area averages shift, not because the contract is different, he said.
McConnell said area average coverage is set for a risk area based on a 10-year average, which changes each year as cropping trends shift. Because of poorer crops in 1992, the average dropped. IMAPS also declined.
In 1993 about 19,000 people took the revenue and crop insurance components of GRIP and 2,500 took the revenue portion. It’s assumed about 65 percent of the eligible acres in the province are covered.
In the southern portion of the province, coverage is higher at 90 percent because the risk of loss is higher, said McConnell. Probably less than half of those eligible sign on in central and northern Alberta.
