PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Eric Upshall declared victory as the annual agriculture ministers’ conference came to a close here last week.
The Saskatchewan minister is confident he convinced others that his province, and Manitoba, should continue to receive safety net funding based on risk.
“It’s a definite victory,” he said in an interview. “We’ve got the assurance that Saskatchewan is understood as a unique situation.”
His Manitoba counterpart was more reserved.
“I don’t like to portray it (as a victory),” said Harry Enns. “The two principles involved are still very much there.”
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But they do have some breathing room.
Heading into the meeting seven provinces, led by Ontario and British Columbia, were lined up against Saskatchewan and Manitoba, demanding the existing $600 million safety net fund be distributed according to each province’s farm cash receipts.
The two prairie provinces argue their farmers face higher risks from weather and the world market and therefore need more money in safety nets. If the formula is changed, the two would lose approximately $53 million, about $40 million of that from Saskatchewan.
“I can’t go home to Manitoba with that kind of proposition so we dug our heels in,” said Enns. As he did at a February meeting in Victoria, Quebec minister Remy Trudel sided with the prairie provinces and encouraged the others to understand their position.
The ministers agreed to put their officials to work over the next few months, developing and analyzing several options for both funding and the programs themselves. One option would see a formula based on farm cash receipts, while maintaining a level of funding in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Upshall said the recognition that these two provinces need special consideration was not there before.
The ministers will meet in Toronto in November to go over the details, then consult with industry and make a final decision at a February 2000 meeting. A new five-year agreement would be implemented April 1.
Ontario agriculture minister Ernie Hardeman, new to the job but taking the same stance as his predecessor, said he was content with that.
“I am at this point satisfied and happy that we are collectively looking at an approach to review how allocations are made,” he said.
The ministers received preliminary data on how the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program is working in Ontario and Alberta, but did not have enough information to suggest changes. Federal minister Lyle Vanclief said any changes would have to be made early this fall. He said establishing long-term disaster assistance that works within existing programs is a major priority.
He also said governments want to know why producers aren’t taking money out of their Net Income Stabilization Accounts even though the withdrawals have been triggered.
And he had some tough words for producers a day after he was jostled by some outside a Prince Albert hotel.
“There’s hundreds of millions of dollars already available to producers in Canada in the programs that they have,” Vanclief said. “We’re saying to producers, use it. … When people aren’t using their NISA accounts it’s tough for anybody, all of my colleagues, to say, ‘Oh, but we’ll go and find you some more new money’.”
