The Manitoba government won’t promise to be part of a federal farm aid program, but it will lend $25 to $30 million to farmers who need help.
Agriculture minister Harry Enns told reporters about the loans program a few days before Christmas, after describing it to four farm leaders sitting at a boardroom table in his office.
“Anything is welcome right now,” said David Rolfe, a hog farmer from Elgin, Man. “It’s just an absolute life line.”
Don Dewar, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said the “trade-friendly” program should help farmers with cash flow problems. But he made it clear farmers expect the province to contribute to the federal farm aid program.
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“We don’t see this as an ‘instead,'” said Dewar.
The farmers said they are frustrated the financial aid program appears to be mired in a political tug of war between the federal and provincial governments, but professed to be sympathetic to the Manitoba government’s position.
Enns complained that Dec. 22 was the first time a federal bureaucrat paid a visit to Manitoba bureaucrats about the federal aid proposals.
The minister told reporters his government objects to having to pay for 40 percent of the aid program in Manitoba, which could add up to $15 to $30 million.
He said the low commodity prices constitute a disaster for agriculture, meaning the federal government should pick up 90 percent of the tab, as it recently did for flooded farmers in the Red River Valley and ice-stormed maple sugar farmers in Ontario and Quebec.
Enns said the aid program is supposed to be the “third line of defence,” last discussed when governments negotiated the Net Income Stabilization Account and Gross Revenue Insurance Plan safety nets.
At that time, it was agreed the “third line of defence” would be paid for by the federal government.
Too equal
Enns also objected to the new farm aid program because it proposes to treat “rich Ontario or rich B.C.” the same way as Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the provinces hit worst by poor commodity prices.
On this, Enns is united with Saskatchewan’s NDP agriculture minister Eric Upshall. Enns said he talks to Upshall every day.
The Manitoba agriculture minister hopes to include the cost of the loans program, which could be $1 or $2 million, as part of his government’s commitment to the federal farm aid package.
Enns said the loans from the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation are needed because the federal program, “if and when it clicks in,” won’t deliver money to farmers until summer.
The federal program is too slow, said Enns, and will be administered by NISA, a program Enns said is often criticized for being “not exactly the swiftest people on the block.”
