The Alberta government knew about problems with the $100 million a year farm fuel benefit program for more than a decade but sat on internal reports of the problem, the Liberal agriculture critic has charged.
A 1999 Alberta Agriculture report identified serious flaws in the system, including which farmers were eligible for the program and discrepancies in verification.
“It’s a good program, poorly managed by a bad government,” said Hugh MacDonald, who received the report through an access to information request.
Last year provincial auditor general Fred Dunn also flagged the farm fuel benefit program as a program in need of a serious overhaul. It had been designed to reduce or eliminate the amount of tax farmers pay on diesel and gas.
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“The auditor general was quite clear in his report last year and to find out the department knew about this a decade ago,” MacDonald said.
He also said nonfarmers or farmers with questionable agriculture income should be kicked out of the program and part of the savings used to increase farm fuel benefits to farmers who are eligible.
“Let’s make sure it gets to the real farmers.”
Alberta Agriculture spokesperson David Hennig said the department has improved the program since Dunn highlighted problems.
Drought and BSE over the past decade created difficult times in the industry and limited department resources were directed to developing farm programs designed to help farmers rather than auditing the farm fuel program, he added.
Hennig said Alberta agriculture minister George Groeneveld has made a commitment to review the program and not just look at criteria eligibility.
“We understand there is a need for a review, but we want to review the whole program,” he said.
