REGINA – Several Saskatchewan farmers who received bills under the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan are forming a group to challenge them.
Dave Helstrom, a farmer from Gray, said organizers are gathering information to fight the bills they say they shouldn’t have to pay.
Bills totalling $11.8 million were sent out to nearly 12,000 farmers after GRIP was wound down earlier this year. Approximately 35,000 farmers received cheques.
Helstrom received a bill for about $5,300, but said his calculations show the program owes him more than $10,000. He said he received a bill because all five crops he insured through GRIP were “basketed” in final calculations.
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Three crops sold below the guaranteed price while two sold above. When the crops were basketed, he didn’t make up the shortfall on the three crops.
Helstrom said another reason to protest the bills was a promise made by former agriculture minister Darrel Cunningham that 1993 GRIP overpayments would not have to be repaid.
Current agriculture minister Eric Upshall has said there was no promise. A Jan. 30, 1995 letter from Cunningham to GRIP participants said producers’ overpayments would be charged against their share of the surplus when the program was over.
Helstrom couldn’t say how many farmers have called in response to an advertisement about the protest placed in several newspapers.
“Even some with fairly insignificant bills are wanting to fight on principle,” he said.
“We’re gaining strength. We would like to get barging ahead, but we don’t want to go barging ahead and look stupid.”
Helstrom is waiting for information from several sources, including the provincial ombudsman’s office, before the group issues a press release to announce its intentions. Action could include a court challenge, he said.
As of May 1, according to Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation information, two-thirds of the farmers who received bills had paid them, representing $5.54 million or 47 percent of the money owing.
