Manitoba’s agriculture minister was to meet with some of his bureaucrats this week to tell them to ease up on farmers applying for emergency loans.
When Harry Enns announced the loans program just before Christmas, he said the loans from the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corporation would be readily available.
“I want it (the loan) made virtually on a promissory note,” he said in an interview last week.
Instead, farmers applying for loans have found they’ve had to jump through the usual hoops.
Glen Jeffrey, a hog and grain farmer at Bowsman, Man., who applied for a loan, said MACC loans officers still look at a farmer’s past three years of records and forward projections. The corporation is also demanding farmers have equity and full security for loans.
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Enns said some farmers have been rejected for the emergency loans because of past failures to repay MACC loans.
The minister brought up the problems at last week’s annual meeting of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
“We will have to see whether my will can prevail,” he said.
But Enns said the loans will not bail out bankrupt farms.
Charlene Kibbons, acting general manager of MACC, was not available for comment.
Under the program, farmers can borrow up to $50,000, and corporations, partnerships and co-ops up to $100,000.
The loans will have a six percent interest rate and up to a 10-year term. Principal and interest payments may be deferred until prices recover.
Farmers must have a minimum gross farm income of $10,000 and be eligible for the Net Income Stabilization Account program to get the loans.
