NISKU, Alta. – An Alberta farm leader says producers’ misgivings about the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program were ignored as government seemed determined to release a safety net full of holes.
“Producers across this country need to understand that all the problems with CAIS that people are complaining about today were identified in the early development stages by producers,” said Neil Wagstaff, who was a member of the safety net advisory committee when CAIS was created.
Producers at the time were annoyed because their advice went unheeded.
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“Bureaucrats seemed to have their own plan and they just seemed to be dragging their feet when it came to accepting input from producers,” he said at the Wild Rose Agricultural Producers’ annual meeting on Jan. 11.
Those attending the meeting passed a series of resolutions asking the federal government to rely on producer advice so the program is simple, easily understood, transparent and bankable.
Alberta agriculture minister Doug Horner told the group he wants the same results because the program needs fixing. Federal election candidates have promised to revise the program and Alberta will watch to see if that actually happens, he added.
“There is no desire to scrap CAIS right now because it is a national program, but changes had better meet those requirements or we are not going to do it again,” Horner said.
Alberta changed the program last fall and set aside $224 million to send more money to producers in response to back-to-back disasters brought on by drought, floods and BSE.
“We are going to examine every CAIS claim from 2003-05 using two reference margin calculations and find out which one is the most beneficial for that producer,” Horner said.
By the end of December he estimated an additional $60 million had already been issued since the assessment started. However, problems continue with missing farmer information.
About 38,000 farmers applied for CAIS help and officials are still waiting for 15,000 farmers to finish their applications.
