Saskatchewan will fully fund its share of Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program payments for 2005.
The government made that commitment during the Nov. 7 throne speech to open the first legislative session of the province’s second century.
Agriculture minister Mark Wartman said the government recognizes the stress farmers are under as they make management plans.
“Anything we could do to allay that, we wanted to do,” he said, after lt.-gov. Lynda Haverstock read the speech.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Neal Hardy said he expected the government would fully fund the program, especially since it is enjoying healthy oil and gas revenue.
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“I totally applaud it,” he said.
Liberal leader David Karwacki said the province is stuck with a program that doesn’t work but had no choice but to pay its share of CAIS. The government should look at developing, with Ottawa, a minimum price structure with a “green envelope” that rewards environmental stewardship, he said.
Bob Bjornerud, agriculture critic for the Saskatchewan Party, said he wanted the government to address the problem of high input costs and low commodity prices and “the hurt that’s going on right now.”
Wartman said the government will continue attempts to transform the CAIS cost-sharing arrangement to get more help to farmers.
Other rural initiatives noted in the speech included a promise to “facilitate further diversification to keep pace with growing opportunities.”
The province plans to expand traditional and organic processing and feedlot capacity and invest in valued-added food production.
The government also plans to expand the use of irrigation over the next 20 years. In the same period it wants 10 percent of the province’s arable land dedicated to agroforestry.
Hardy said that’s a nice idea but expensive. He wondered if the province had a plan to assist farmers who want to enter that industry.
Wartman said there is no formal plan in place.
The government once again said it will deal with education property tax relief, promising to develop a long-term solution “that is in the best interests of students and taxpayers.”
That didn’t suit those who wanted a more concrete plan.
“It wasn’t clear in the throne speech whether they had a long-term plan to deal with property tax or they would deal with it in the long term,” said Karwacki.
The government also said it will increase funding available for the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program to help communities in the Arborfield and Lloydminster regions deal with the widespread flooding.
The fall session will last about three weeks before adjourning until the spring.
