Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman went home from the federal-provincial agriculture ministers meeting a disappointed man.
He had hoped to immediately open the aid spigot that would deliver disaster relief money to afflicted farmers, but found the disaster relief funding formula hasn’t yet been cast.
“I was hoping that we could get some clear movement on the disaster funding because we’ve got people who are waiting, people who are hurting in different situations,” said Wartman in the aftermath of the day-and-a-half series of meetings held in Winnipeg.
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The cost-sharing arrangement appears to be the most contentious issue coming out of the meeting. Provincial ministers have been pushing for a federal commitment to fund 90 percent, with some calls for 100 percent, but federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl is offering 60 percent.
But at the meeting’s wrap-up news conference, both Strahl and some of the ministers sounded positive and willing to compromise.
“What we didn’t agree on today, and didn’t expect to agree to today, was the actual funding formula,” said Strahl.
Officials from both the federal and provincial governments will examine “an array of options” about how to fund disaster situations that affect farmers.
British Columbia agriculture minister Pat Bell said the apparent chasm between the provincial ministers and the federal minister isn’t large.
“Ministers are willing to look at creative solutions to find a productive outcome to this issue,” said Bell, who spoke for the provincial ministers.
“From a provincial perspective, what we’re looking at doing is trying to protect ourselves against a significant sized disaster. But we understand that the province also needs to play a role in smaller disasters that don’t have the same sort of fiscal implications for a provincial jurisdiction.
“We are not as far apart as one might think.”
