Leaders of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture have agreed to a compromise position in their fight to replace the deposit requirement for the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program.
They say they will accept a small fee if all governments are willing to commit to paying their full share of triggered CAIS payments, rather than prorating if cash is tight.
“Our position is that there should be no requirement for an up-front producer payment because farmers commit to 30 percent of the loss when they join,” CFA president Bob Friesen said June 24 after a CFA executive conference call.
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“But we have decided we would accept a 0.15 percent participation fee if both levels of government committed not to prorate.”
It is significantly less than the federal government is proposing as an annual fee.
Ottawa said a CAIS fee would be in the 0.5 percent range, costing $500 for each $100,000 of margin protection. The CFA proposal would produce a fee of $150 for each $100,000 of coverage.
Canada’s largest and most influential farm lobby took its compromise position in anticipation of the early July meeting of federal and provincial agriculture ministers in Alberta. The CFA request to make a formal presentation to ministers has been rejected.
Before the meeting among farm leaders last week, the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers cited concerns with having a fee, a deductible or a deposit for producers to take part in CAIS. Having an admission fee for a safety net program could restrict producer access, David Rolfe said.
However agriculture ministers across Canada agreed when they last met that there needs to be active producer participation in the CAIS program, said Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk.
“This is a three-way partnership between the province, the federal government and producers. From the beginning, there was the agreement that the producers would be participating and we have to find a way.”
Wowchuk said “although people have concerns with it, there are millions of dollars that have flown through the program in Manitoba so it has to be working for somebody.
“At our last meeting, there was consensus in an insistence that there has to be some producer commitment,” she said June 24.
But as federal-provincial negotiations continue over provincial affordability for the existing 60-40 federal-provincial cost-sharing formula, some provinces insist they cannot afford their share of program costs.
It means farmers in some provinces receive less than the 40 percent share from their government.
“That is not how it is supposed to work,” said Friesen. “We’re getting terribly afraid the provinces will increasingly start to prorate as costs grow, yet they expect farmers to pay up front for a program they are not willing to commit to fully deliver.”
He said farmers will not be willing to accept a program fee unless federal and provincial governments promise to pay the full amount the program triggers.
