The leaders of a Quebec-Ontario grain farmer lobby are accusing the Conservative government of breaking an election promise by excluding farm safety net programs from its $500 million, five-year Agriflex budget funding.
The Ontario-Quebec Grain Farmers’ Coalition, claiming to speak for 41,000 farmers and supported by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, insist provinces should have the right to decide how their portion of the money is spent.
They say when federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says he is responding to the CFA call for an Agriflex program, he was suggesting safety net funding was an option for the money.
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“By excluding business risk management from this proposal, the government is breaking their election promise,” the coalition president William Van Tassel said. “They are making it difficult for the provinces to maintain existing programs and impossible for them to start new ones.”
Ritz said the demand that the money go into safety net programs is misplaced.
“The whole idea is we do now have substantive business risk pillars that should cover off any eventuality,” he said Jan. 28. “I think that (Agriflex) money is best spent building capacity for the future.”
In the Jan. 27 federal budget, finance minister Jim Flaherty announced a five-year, $500 million Agricultural Flexibility program that will make money available for programs designed to meet provincial or region-specific needs.
However, the budget made clear the funds would not be available for programs like Ontario’s Risk Management Program or Quebec’s ASRA, both of which support farm income based on the difference between production costs and returns.
The farm lobby sees the Agriflex money as a return to companion programs that saw federal dollars help fund provincial safety net programs.
But Ritz insists it would be ineffective to put federal money into the Ontario cost of production-based risk management program.
“With input costs going down, (the program) is not going to trigger any money,” he said. “So the easiest thing to do would be to make that announcement to say we are going to top that up, but then farmers aren’t going to benefit.”
Ritz said the money is better spent on programs that help farmers reduce production costs, develop markets, improve environmental sustainability and create innovation.
Farm lobbyists who support a return to province-specific companion programs, including safety nets, disagree.
“We are disappointed that details of the agricultural flexibility spending do not match up to our vision,” said CFA vice-president Ron Bonnett. “Flexibility should extend to what the province and its producers want. We will continue to work on this.”
Laurent Pellerin, CFA first vice-president, said the agriflex rules “are not in keeping with what the farm community has been calling for.”
Ritz insisted that not all farmers in Ontario want federal dollars to support the risk management program.
And even if provincial ministers insist their share of the $500 million should go to safety net programming, he has the final say.
Grain Growers of Canada supports the federal decision, arguing that federal support for provincial safety net programs would create unequal support levels across the country and open Canada to trade challenges.
