Manitoba farmers will soon get their remaining share of surplus funds from the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan.
Grain producers who participated in GRIP will be getting cheques this month. The total payout will be $7.8 million.
Individual payments will depend on farmers’ premiums.
GRIP was offered to producers as a supplement to crop insurance from 1991-95. It helped guard against yield and price fluctuations.
Keystone Agricultural Producers had hoped the remaining surplus funds would go toward agricultural development in the province.
KAP president Don Dewar said that would have offered a way to leverage matching money from the federal and provincial governments, which also had surpluses in GRIP. By combining the producer surplus with federal and provincial money, a fund of more than $22 million could have been developed for something like farmer-directed research.
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The farm leader has not given up hope that such a fund might yet be established, although it would now be minus the $7.8 million being paid to producers.
It’s unclear what will become of the federal and provincial governments’ surpluses.
Several sources have said that on paper the money was turned back to government treasuries in 1999. However, in reality the money still is being held in reserve by Manitoba Crop Insurance, which administered Manitoba’s GRIP program.
“There has been no decision on exactly what is going to take place with those funds,” said Lorne Martin, Manitoba Agriculture’s manager of policy analysis.
“It may just go back to each of the respective treasuries.”
He said the federal-provincial GRIP agreement stated that any surpluses in the program must be returned to the contributors.
Added interest
The money has been accumulating interest. As of a year ago there was $9.3 million in federal money and $5.6 million in provincial money, Martin said.
Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk said her government is negotiating with Ottawa to find an appropriate use for the remaining money. The province would be willing to put its share toward an initiative that benefits agriculture, provided the federal government does likewise, Wowchuk said.
“Without a doubt, this was money allocated for agriculture.”
In an April 12 News release
news, the Manitoba government said the remaining GRIP surplus owed to producers was held in trust while a lawsuit involving the program was settled.
Legal action was started a decade ago by a group of producers who felt GRIP coverage did not adequately reflect the crop yield potential in their area of the province.
A $300,000 out-of-court settlement was reached with the Red River Corridor Producers Association Inc. last year.
Association president Lorne Hamblin shared KAP’s desire to see the remaining surplus, including the government portion, used to establish a fund for producers’ benefit. One possibility would have been a fund for research on fusarium. Hamblin’s other preference would have been to see the governments’ share paid to producers along with the $7.8 million issued this month.
