Persistence does pay off.
Over the last five months, Linda Shewchuk of Garland, Man., has written multiple letters to federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and prime minister Stephen Harper, asking the politicians to sort out her grievance with a federal flood assistance program.
Last year, Shewchuk and her husband, Walter, whose farm is 60 kilometres north of Dauphin, couldn’t seed 205 acres of their land because of excessive spring rain.
However, the Cover Crop Protection Program told the Shewchuks they were not eligible for financial assistance to cover the loss. The CCPP provides payments of $15 an acre for producers enrolled in provincial crop insurance programs.
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Officials from the program said the Shewchuks would not receive payment because they failed to submit a claim by Oct. 31, 2007.
Shewchuk said there’s a simple reason they didn’t submit the documentation – they never received the forms.
“We did not get this declaration (form) from them,” Shewchuk said. “It’s not fair to get shafted this way.”
Apparently someone at Agriculture Canada has listened to their complaint because the CCPP application deadline has been extended.
“The minister (Ritz) has extended the 2007 deadline from Oct. 31 (2007), to June 30, 2008,” said Gavin Conacher of the CCPP.
Ritz announced the extension April 11 in Yorkton, Sask. His decision will affect 929 farmers across Canada -145 who sent their documents in late and 784 who did not apply.
The late applications will be immediately processed and those who did not apply will soon be receiving a courier package with the necessary documents.
While he could not comment on what motivated the minister to extend the deadline, Conacher speculated that a late harvest might have prevented some producers from submitting documents on time. The deadline for the program in 2008 will be Nov. 30.
Shewchuk could not be reached for comment on the new deadline.
In an earlier interview she said the $3,000 they were expecting in compensation was not the issue. It was a question of fairness, she said. And she didn’t like being blamed for not submitting a document that never made it to her mailbox.
