OTTAWA — Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says provinces wanted the changes made to business risk management programs in Growing Forward 2, and Ottawa didn’t stand in their way.
He said he hasn’t seen any downside to the changes that took effect in 2013, but farmers continue to complain that the payment trigger reduction from 85 percent of five-year reference margins to 70 percent have made AgriStability unusable.
At the same time, government contributions to AgriInvest were lowered.
During last week’s national agriculture debate, the participants were asked if their parties would commit to BRM improvements.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Marcel Groleau of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said AgriStability and AgriInvest are essential to managing risk and allowing producers to reinvest in their businesses.
“With the cuts that have been made, we can hardly say the farm community has the confidence needed to support and maintain these investments,” said Groleau, who asked a question at the debate.
However, Ritz said the federal government didn’t vote for the cuts.
“The provinces and territories actually have a vote; we have a veto,” he said.
He said Ottawa chose not to exercise its veto because “we could agree with keeping our finances and treasury boards happy.”
He also said programs are under review as they hit the midway point of the five-year agreement.
NDP agriculture critic Malcolm Allen said the programs used to be responsive, but now farmers tell him AgriStability is “useless.”
“These programs need to be responsive to the needs of farmers,” he said during the debate. “It’s time to redo it and start again.”
Green party candidate Andrew West raised eyebrows among the other debaters and in the crowd of about 140 people when he said farm support programs are a burden on taxpayers.
“The Green party encourages farmers to subsidize their own farms by diversifying,” he said, as well as focusing on domestic sales.
Mark Eyking, Liberal agriculture critic and Nova Scotia candidate, said West and his party are way off base.
Other topics debated by the four men, as well as Bloc Quebecois candidate Yves Lessard, included public investment in research, agricultural labour needs, how to attract more Canadians to the sector, biodiversity and social licence.
karen.briere@producer.com
