Ottawa and the provinces have opened discussions on a cost-sharing arrangement for agricultural programs that includes a break for agriculture-dependent provinces that have a tough time paying their share of program costs when the industry is in trouble.
It could lead to the first revamping of federal and provincial cost-sharing arrangements in a decade.
At the end of a late-night Nov. 3 ministers-only meeting between federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell and most of his provincial counterparts, the message was co-operation and not letting jurisdictional disputes get in the way of appropriate support for farmers.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Mitchell said he understood provincial arguments about limited resources, although that is common to all governments.
“I accept that everybody has fiscal restraints they need to address and that is true for both federal and provincial governments,” he said.
“One of the things we have said very clearly is that at the end of the day, we have to be driven by producers and the needs of producers. It is important to keep the needs of producers front and centre in our minds.”
Mitchell would not speculate on the outcome of discussions about the “affordability” of existing cost-share arrangements that typically require 40 provincial cents for every 60 federal cents. Ministers will refine arguments and meet again early next year.
“I’m not going to go there because we haven’t finished our discussions but clearly the concept of flexibility is certainly there in terms of the things we have done,” Mitchell said when asked about possible changes to the funding formula.
Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman was more willing to speculate that changes are in the works.
His province has been a leading voice for change in funding arrangements because it spends significantly more per capita on farm programming than any other province.
Wartman said the province cannot pay the required 40 percent of current Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program costs and provincial farm leaders complain this means Saskatchewan producers are being short changed compared to farmers in other provinces.
“The commitment I see here tonight is that where we are today is not satisfactory,” he said. “There’s more work that needs to be done. This federal minister is different than what we’ve encountered in the past and he wants to work with us to settle some of these things.”
Wartman said he expects a deal eventually that will help the province and its farmers. He believes it will involve an amendment of the CAIS cost-share formula.
“We can’t say we walked out with a different arrangement today but I have confidence in our ability to work together to get something manageable for our province.
“In our discussions, we’re not limited to that historic event when 60-40 became the number.”
Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk said the key will be to recognize that CAIS cannot be the support vehicle for all farm sector problems. This year, Manitoba has been hit by losses from bad harvest weather, BSE and now the American anti-dumping duty on Canadian hogs.
“It depends on what the issues are,” she said when asked about the present cost-share formula.
“It works on some programs but when we get into a disaster, we have to look at how we fund disasters versus how we fund safety net programs. CAIS can’t be the be-all and end-all because we have had some unique situations in the last 18 months we never dreamed would happen.”
Mitchell promised the informal discussion on program funding at his first federal-provincial ministers’ meeting in Prince Edward Island last September. Bureaucrats were not invited.
He said at the time he wanted to open discussions on how to end the regular squabbles over affordability.
