Saskatchewan producers will receive 100 percent of their 2003 entitlements from the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program, but there is already uncertainty about 2004.
Provincial agriculture minister Mark Wartman said Dec. 22 that information from early applications showed the program was $70 million over projections.
Saskatchewan intends to budget about $100 million annually for the safety net program.
“Right now the numbers are very loose,” Wartman said. “They will move I think significantly if past experience is any indication.”
However, he doesn’t expect the numbers to go down, given BSE and last year’s frost and late harvest.
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He said that’s why the province will continue to push for changes to the way the program is funded.
At a news conference announcing that Saskatchewan would meet its full $209 million 2003 commitment, premier Lorne Calvert said the average Saskatchewan family of four would contribute $836 to the program.
“This same family of four, if they were living in Toronto, would contribute $120,” he said. “That inequity we believe must still be addressed.”
Wartman said federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell has said affordability will be on the table during the federal-provincial-territorial ministers’ meeting in March.
Calvert also said the province will make another offer to Ottawa.
“As we go into the new year and begin again the negotiations and discussions with our federal counterparts around this program, I’ll ask the minister of agriculture and food to take to that table a proposal by which the majority of the administration of this program could be done in Saskatchewan,” he said.
CAIS administration cost the province $13 million in 2003.
On Nov. 21, 10 days before the program deadline, there were 26,274 applications from Saskatchewan. Nearly 10,000 new applications came in during those last 10 days.
Saskatchewan found the extra money for CAIS in special dividends from the NewGrade Energy upgrader and Haro Financial Corp. and its Crown Life subsidiary.
Wartman said the government could no longer sit by and watch the stress producers were under.
Farm organizations welcomed the news and agreed that the province needs a better deal from Ottawa.
“The federal government cannot insist that the CAIS program will be used to cover disasters like BSE and frost, and then at the same time insist that the 60-40 cost-sharing formula is sustainable for a province like Saskatchewan,” said National Farmers Union president Stewart Wells.
