WINNIPEG – Perry Stefaniuk’s great grandfather came to Canada from Ukraine 98 years ago – the same year the railways agreed to the Crowsnest Pass freight rate.
He settled near Beausejour, Man., northeast of Winnipeg.
Now that the Crow Benefit has ended and it’s time for Stefaniuk, who grows mostly wheat, to receive a payout, he’s discovered that three of the 40-acre titles he holds are not eligible.
The rules state landowners with less than 50 acres are not eligible for the payout. Although Stefaniuk owns 360 acres in total, the small titles are shared with his wife and parents.
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He estimates the compensation for the three small titles would be between $1,300 and $2,800.
“I received many phone calls from neighbors having the same problem,” he said. “Around here there’s a lot of 40-acre pieces, plenty.”
Rick Gaube, operations manager for the Western Grain Transition Program, explained the 50-acre rule was made so landowners whose main income was not derived from the farm would not get compensation.
He said “holdings where they’ve got maybe five or 10 acres of cultivated land, 30 acres of pasture, four horses and a nice house, and basically, their income was not derived from that land,” are not supposed to get a cut of the payout.
Gaube said the program has received less than 100 calls from farmers about the issue, most of them from Manitoba.
He said Manitoba has 80 percent of “non-standard land locations,” which are lots other than the traditional quarter-section. Many of these are along rivers, where French settlers originally cleared long, narrow strips of land extending from the river.
However, Gaube said the administrators of the program are powerless to change the rules. And a review board that will check out complaints from farmers early next year won’t have the power to change the rules either.
The review board will be able to make recommendations to the minister, though. So Gaube is encouraging all farmers who think some land wasn’t included because of the 50-acre rule to write a letter to the review board.
“It’s important that we know what our total liability is in terms of acres and where they are so we can divide all of that massive calculation into a specific pot of money,” Gaube said.
About 75 percent of the $1.6 billion payout will be mailed to farmers in January. The rest will go out in July.
