The federal Conservatives are renewing a controversial low-income farm family support program for another year, even though the program helped fewer families and spent far less than the government anticipated.
On April 20, agriculture minister Chuck Strahl said the Canadian Farm Families Options Program will operate for another year and will be available to the 15,000 farmers and farm families that took advantage of it in its first year.
“Canada’s new government is listening to producers and always evaluating how best to help them meet the challenges they face,” he said in a statement announcing extension of what was called a pilot project when announced last summer.
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“As a result, only those who received a payment in the first year of the program will be eligible for Year 2. We remain committed to investing in initiatives that support our farmers.”
But the program was an underachiever, at least compared to original government estimates of demand.
In July 2006 when he announced it as the fulfilment of an election promise to help poor farm families, Strahl said the government was prepared to spend $550 million over two years to assist an expected 25,000 farmers or farm families.
Instead, 15,000 were approved for help and the program paid out $141 million based on 2005 income tax filings. Since second-year payment caps will be just 75 percent of first-year caps, total spending likely will be less than $300 million.
The maximum payment for a family will fall to $18,750 from $25,000 last year. For individual farmers, the maximum will fall to $11,250 from $15,000.
To be eligible for payments, farms had to have gross farm revenues of at least $50,000 in 2005. Applications will be available in August and must be submitted by Oct. 31, 2007.
Recipients will have to have completed or be taking management and business plan training.
