A group of Saskatchewan farmers has decided to continue the fight against changes made to the province’s gross revenue insurance plan five years ago.
Wayne Bacon, a Kinistino-area farmer and spokesperson for the 386 farmers named in the lawsuit, said the appeal was submitted to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Aug. 8.
Lawyers for the farmers, the provincial government or the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. could not be reached for comment by press time.
Bacon didn’t want to discuss the grounds for the appeal, but did say there has been “tremendous support” for the decision to continue the fight, both from the farmers involved directly in the lawsuit and from other farmers in the province.
Read Also
Final crop reports show strong yields, quality
Crops yielded above average across the Prairies this year, and quality is generally average to above-average.
In mid-July a Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled against the farmers, saying the government acted in the public interest when it unilaterally changed the GRIP contracts in March 1992 and then passed a law saying what it had done was legal.
The farmers argued unsuccessfully the government breached contracts and asked for damages equal to payments they would have received if 1991 GRIP rules had remained in place in 1992.
