The federal government has indicated it will add more than $200 million to earlier estimates for agricultural spending, less than two months into the 2012-13 fiscal year.
The new spending plans tabled in Parliament include almost $27 million to fund the Canadian Grain Commission.
The government plans to increase CGC user fees, but until new legislation is proposed and approved, the government picks up the difference between commission costs and revenues from fees that have been frozen for more than a decade.
The new spending also includes more than $12 million in additional funding for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as well as more than $11 million being transferred from the Agriculture Canada budget for CFIA capital spending.
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The new spending estimates also include a contingency fund of $110.8 million to cover potential obligations for natural disaster events that would be covered by AgriRecovery funding.
“This does not anticipate specific events but flags that there are potential obligations,” said Angela Murphy, director of Agriculture Canada’s finance and resource management division.
The new financial requests are included in supplementary spending estimates tabled in Parliament by the government.
They cover spending that was not anticipated when the fiscal year spending plan was presented to Parliament in March.
Several more updates will be presented to Parliament during the year to reflect unexpected financial requirements.
The new spending includes $4.6 million to help the Port of Churchill adjust to changes that will flow from the end of the CWB monopoly.
As well, it includes the transfer of $12.7 million from Agriculture Canada to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to fund programs such as traceability and plum pox virus control and payment for food specialists in international trade missions.
The fund transfers also will be used to finance a CFIA pilot project to license importers who will implement and police a food safety regime for imported food.
