NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief said last week he is not afraid to fight within his government for more agricultural funding.
He suggested he might even get it some day. “Time will tell.”
But with new safety net agreements up for negotiation this fall and winter, he said farmers should not assume any new funding will go into income-support programs.
“Certainly all of us would like to have more money in the safety net envelope,” Vanclief said at the July 16 wrap-up news conference for the annual federal-provincial agriculture ministers’ meeting.
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“I can tell you I will be pressuring my cabinet colleagues to get more money into the agriculture budget…. If we do get more money, we have to do a priority check on where do we put that money.”
Competition for dollars
He said safety nets will be competing with research, market and industry development for priority.
“When we discuss this, we want to leave no great expectations that the safety net envelope is going to be larger,” said the federal minister. But as safety nets are reviewed, “if we think we can justify more money, we will go to bat for it, no question.”
Vanclief was commenting after ministers announced they have extended the existing safety net mix of programs and funding for an additional year, with a plan to approve new programs at a meeting before the end of March 1999.
Final decisions will be made at their summer conference in July 1999. The new programs would take effect in the summer of 2000.
The existing agreement incorporates $1 billion a year in federal and provincial allocations for Net Income Stabilization Accounts, crop insurance and provincial companion programs.
Ministers agreed last week that review and negotiation during the next eight months will include discussion of whether to introduce a national system of self-directed risk management programs or a national disaster program.
Saskatchewan has been pushing incorporation of a disaster plan and Vanclief said the idea is gaining currency.
