EDMONTON – Alberta has signed onto the federal government’s $5.2 billion agricultural policy framework despite misgivings by producers that the new agreement won’t help them through tough times.
Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said signing the agreement spells out clearly for producers the measures that the federal and the Alberta governments will take.
“This commits Canada and Alberta to delivering a range of services for producers,” said Vanclief when he and his provincial counterpart, Shirley McClellan, signed the controversial agreement June 4. The province had previously signed the agreement in principle.
Read Also
Russian wheat exports start to pick up the pace
Russia has had a slow start for its 2025-26 wheat export program, but the pace is starting to pick up and that is a bearish factor for prices.
Both governments will undertake to deliver on the common goals that were first agreed to more than two years ago in Whitehorse, Yukon. The framework policy was designed to ensure stable funding and predictable programs for food safety, the environment, renewal, science and innovation and the business risk management plan.
Alberta’s share from the federal government over the next five years will be $221 million for the first four elements. An additional $70 million will be Alberta’s share of the business risk management program that will merge the Net Income Stabilization Account with the Farm Income Disaster Plan to create a new NISA.
“I am proud to be signing it because the new NISA program is far better for our producers in the long run and for the majority of producers than the old one was,” said McClellan.
FIDP will no longer be offered beyond the 2002 taxation year. Producers who have already applied for FIDP in 2003, will have their claims processed under the new program.
“The application will be clear,” she said. “The rules will be very clear and there will be only one set of them. I know the majority of producers welcome this change. The majority of producers do support going to a new program that includes a disaster component in the stabilization area.”
Before the new NISA can be implemented, there must be agreement from seven provinces and 50 percent of the present NISA membership.
Alberta is the second province to sign the agreement after Newfoundland. British Columbia and the territorial governments are expected to sign shortly, but Ontario and Quebec are still unsure.
“I can’t tell my colleagues in other provinces how to manage their affairs, but I certainly hope we get more provinces on, for the overall good in Canada,” she said.
Rod Scarlett, general manager of the provincial agriculture organization Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said eliminating FIDP early means Alberta producers will be without a disaster program this year.
“They announced the program but we don’t know if the new program is going ahead,” said Scarlett. He said producers were told Alberta’s FIDP program would continue in 2003, yet the NISA program doesn’t have enough provinces signed on yet.
“Now farmers are going to pay for disasters,” he said. “It takes the province off the hook. That’s huge. That’s major. That’s a tremendous change in the economy for rural Alberta. We’re going to have to contribute. This is not just a little administrative change. This is taking millions out of the rural economy.”
Vanclief said the bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis emphasizes the importance of a national food quality and safety program.
“Clearly, the direction behind the agricultural policy framework has been underlined by the events of the past couple of weeks.
“Working together, governments and industry have put in place one of the best food safety systems in the world,” the minister said.
“As we know in the wake of the one cow with BSE, it’s clear that if we want to retain and expand markets, we must raise the bar even higher,” he said.
The new safety net program was supposed to eliminate the need for ad hoc programs. But conservative estimates put Canada’s losses in the beef industry at $25 million each day the border is closed.
