Agriculture Canada last week presented Parliament with a request to approve spending of $1.3 billion for the 2003-04 fiscal year beginning April 1.
And that isn’t the half of it. Really.
Assistant deputy minister Bruce Deacon, responsible for corporate management, said March 3 that Parliament will be asked to approve another $1.4 billion during the course of the year to implement the agricultural policy framework.
“It’s a question of timing,” he said in an interview. “The spending and program details for the APF still are being worked out, so we will go to treasury board and then to Parliament later with a request for more.”
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He said total spending in the fiscal year 2003-04, which is supposed to be the first of the new five-year program, is expected to be $2.7 billion, the same as actual spending this year, ending March 31.
The next year will begin Ottawa’s transition to funding for two national programs – a new Net Income Stabilization Account program that includes a disaster program and an expanded crop-production insurance program.
Over three years, federal support for provincial companion programs will be phased out. Funding for the Canadian Farm Income Program ends March 31.
In total for next year, Ottawa promised in the budget a $1.1 billion safety net program fund.
That makes the estimates tabled for MPs something of an accounting fiction.
Since APF programs are not included because they were not designed when the spending estimates were drawn up, MPs will be asked to vote on the same budget for NISA as last year, $212 million, and $227 million for crop insurance.
Ironically, in the year Ottawa begins phasing out support for provincial companion programs, the budget shows a $12 million increase to $148 million.
Deacon said it is because unused money has been brought forward from last year.
The estimates also ask Parliament to approve $43.5 million for the prairie grain roads rehabilitation project next year, down slightly from this year.
