Farmers will soon see new programs to help fund environmental measures, food safety and innovation.
The federal government signed agreements with all provinces and two territories last week on programs tailored to provincial needs.
The new non-business risk management (BRM) programs, more than a year behind schedule, will run until March 31, 2013.
The total federal-provincial budget for the Growing Forward programs will be $1.3 billion over five years, including last year’s transition funding for non-BRM programs that existed under the former Agricultural Policy Framework and that were extended for a year because new programs had not been designed and approved.
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The budget is 33 percent higher than funding under the APF, the last five-year policy framework that expired March 31, 2008.
However, the biggest change is in the provincial flexibility and provincial control of the programs. Ottawa will turn its $800 million over to the provinces, which will administer programs designed to meet local priorities.
Provinces will be accountable to federal officials, reporting regularly on how the money is being spent and the results it is achieving.
“It is a lot more money, but that is not the biggest change,” said Agriculture Canada strategic policy branch director Richard Tudor-Price.
“The biggest change is that this is a program designed for provincial priorities and administered by the provinces. There is a flexibility built in that did not exist in the APF.”
In a series of federal-provincial announcements, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the agreements launch a new era in farm programs.
“Farmers expect all levels of government to work together to drive Canadian agriculture forward and this agreement is making this happen,” he was quoted in statements announcing the agreements. “Growing Forward delivers stable and profitable programs that work for farmers.”
However, announcing the agreements did not mean all the programs will begin April 1 as promised by ministers last year when they extended APF programs for a year.
“We will be making these programs available as soon as possible,” British Columbia agriculture minister Ron Cantelon told an April 1 news conference. “I hope it will be very soon. We’re ready to go but we still have to dot some ‘i’s and cross some ‘t’s.”
Programs will include on-farm food safety, traceability, biosecurity measures and the popular Environmental Farm Plan program.
In Manitoba, $18.8 million will be invested in the environmental programs with a particular emphasis on handling the thorny issue of managing manure waste and potential water contamination.
In Ontario, one emphasis will be to fund programs that help farmers become more innovative and responsive to changing market needs and funding the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre aimed at researching and commercializing new horticultural products.
Tudor-Price said one of the requirements built into the federal-provincial agreements is that at least one-quarter of the money must be spent on competitiveness and innovation programs.
Money will also be spent to increase public awareness of the environmental steps being taken.
“With the flexibility built into this, provinces have been able to decide what their priority areas are,” said Lois James, a strategic policy branch special adviser on the federal-provincial negotiations.
For the duration of the programs, the federal portion of the federal-provincial 60-40 cost sharing will provide $181 million for Ontario programs, $115 million to Quebec, $71 million to Manitoba, $153 million to Saskatchewan, $165 million to Alberta and $47 million to British Columbia.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture was critical that details of the Growing Forward programs were not available April 1 as promised.
President Laurent Pellerin had scheduled a meeting with Ritz for April 2 and he said April 1 he would carry his criticisms to the meeting.
It was cancelled.
CFA executive director Brigid Rivoire said April 6 federation staff and executive had not yet studied the details of the 12 announced agreements.
“But we’re pleased to finally see an announcement,” she said.
