The federal government will not give in to growing farm and provincial
pressure to extend existing farm safety net programs for a year past
March 31, 2003, to give negotiators more time to design the next
generation of farm programs, a blunt agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief
said Nov. 18.
In a toughly worded speech to the annual meeting of Grain Growers of
Canada, one of the groups lobbying for a program extension, Vanclief
insisted new programs will be negotiated in time to take effect next
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year.
Any delay past March 31 would put at risk some of the $5.2 billion in
federal funding announced last summer, he said.
“There will be no extension of existing programs into the next year,”
he said. “I can tell you it would place these funds at risk.”
Vanclief said cabinet approved funding for the agricultural policy
framework, or APF, on the assumption that new and improved programs
would take effect April 1, 2003.
“In order to get that $5.2 billion, I had to be pretty specific on what
types of things, what directions that we would use that money.”
Now, before he can get his hands on the money, he has to go back to
cabinet with details of how it will be spent.
“I can tell you I for one want to lock in this substantial amount of
money … by reaching agreement soon on the details of a new package of
programs.”
It will be a key issue when federal and provincial ministers meet Dec.
4 to debate progress on program negotiations.
On Nov. 18, Ontario minister Helen Johns said it is an “embarrassment”
that so little progress has been made in negotiations on program design
since the APF was signed in Halifax in June. She favours extension.
Saskatchewan minister Clay Serby, who has not signed the APF, said he
does not.
Vanclief said there is no need for producer worry that at midnight
March 31, 2003, all programs will change.
There will have to be a basic program in place to replace the $500
million Canadian Farm Income Program because it dies at midnight.
Beyond that, changes to crop insurance and the Net Income Stabilization
Account program will be phased in, although they must start April 1,
2003.
“There will be an orderly transition to a new approach,” he said.
During his speech, Vanclief also forcefully dismissed a grain growers’
plea that Ottawa reconsider its rejection of a trade injury fund to
compensate farmers for low prices because of foreign subsidies.
