OTTAWA – Two provincial farm debt review board chairs say the government is making mistakes as it tries to shape the program into a mediation service.
One major complaint voiced last week by the chairs of the Ontario and Quebec farm debt review boards is that the proposed new system will only provide help when a farmer has become insolvent.
The farm debt review system that has existed since 1986 allowed farmers to apply for help and advice when they started to get into trouble.
“We like to stress prevention,” Bob Holmes of Stratford, Ont., chair of the provincial farm debt review board, told the Commons agriculture committee Oct. 3.
Read Also
Canola oil transloading facility opens
DP World just opened its new canola oil transload facility at the Port of Vancouver. It can ship one million tonnes of the commodity per year.
Band-Aid measure
Jean-Yves Couillard, chair of the Quebec board, was more blunt.
“I think this is a gap in the legislation,” he told MPs. “We are looking at the cure rather than prevention …. I don’t think (the proposed system) is more humane. I think it is the contrary.”
The two were the first witnesses as the Commons committee began public hearings on proposed new federal farm debt legislation.
It would abolish the present farm debt review boards with mediation boards set up to “facilitate financial arrangements between insolvent farmers and their creditors.”
Their main complaint was that by the time farmers are eligible to apply for help, their financial problems will be so bad it will be difficult to save the operation.
Jack Johnson, a member of the Ontario debt review board, said most farmers helped by the board seek assistance when they are having problems, rather than when their creditors are trying to foreclose.
The Ontario board receives an average 35 requests for help each month.
Under existing farm debt review legislation, a farmer can ask under section 16 for expert help in designing a five- year business plan to deal with mounting debt. That plan can be used to try to convince creditors there is a solution which does not involve foreclosure.
The Ontario board representatives also complained the proposed new mediation boards will be more unwieldy and costly because they include up to 11 people, including those who hear appeals. Existing farm debt review boards have been reduced to six.
“There will be more people and more people mean more costs,” said Johnson.
This week, government officials appear before the committee to answer the criticisms and to explain why the government is proposing changes to the program.
