WINNIPEG (Staff) – For Saskatchewan, the struggle to find an alternative farmer safety net by next year has become a $200 million question.
That is how much Saskatchewan agriculture minister Darrel Cunningham says is needed from the federal government to fund its share of a new system that will replace the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan next year, when the province becomes the first to withdraw.
Saskatchewan is proposing an enriched Net Income Stabilization Account and a companion program designed like the now-defunct Western Grain Stabilization Account, operated without farmer premiums.
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No commitments
“What we are missing on this is the federal funding, cost-sharing commitments from both governments that will allow us to plan details,” Cunningham said.
He was disappointed federal minister Ralph Goodale did not come to last week’s agriculture ministers’ meeting with a cash commitment.
“We hoped for that and are disappointed,” said Cunningham.
Goodale pro-mised more talks and the beginning of detail planning “within very few weeks.”
The $200 million is more than Ottawa now spends on safety nets in Saskatchewan. Cunningham said the provincial government is prepared to commit slightly less than that as its share.
Meanwhile, the province’s enthusiasm for an enhanced NISA has some other provinces nervous.
Saskatchewan is suggesting NISA farmer contribution limits be raised from two percent to four percent of eligible gross revenues. The provincial and federal governments would match it with two percent each.
Manitoba minister Harry Enns said Saskatchewan can embrace the idea because it has money to spend by getting out of other existing safety nets. “It might even save them some.”
But provinces like Manitoba want to keep some form of existing programs. That would mean farmer pressure to find new money, to keep up with Saskatchewan NISA benefits.
As the bickering goes on, Saskatchewan farmers continue to wonder what safety net program they will have in 1995.
Goodale pledged at the end of the conference to make the Saskatchewan issue a top priority.
