The Saskatchewan Party is on the NDP’s CAIS about the province’s underfunded farm safety net program.
Agriculture critic Lyle Stewart said Saskatchewan is going to fall far short of its obligation to fund 40 percent of the federal-provincial Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization program, which he called unacceptable.
“After this frost there is just no question that it’s time for this NDP government to realize it’s a crisis out there and it’s partly their responsibility to fund this program and help out.”
Stewart said the province signed an agreement with the federal government stipulating a 60-40 cost sharing arrangement and it should live up to that commitment.
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Mark Wartman, the province’s minister of agriculture, said Saskatchewan signed the agreement with the proviso it would not exceed a $99 million spending cap.
In some years that will be an adequate pool of money to provide its full 40 percent share of the program, but that appears unlikely for the inaugural year of CAIS.
Producers have until Sept. 30, 2004, to complete their 2003 applications. Although a final tally is not yet known, the federal government estimates the province’s share of costs using the 40 percent formula could range from $170 million to $300 million. Saskatchewan’s $99 million cap amounts to between one and two-thirds of that amount. Wartman said the shortfall is just an economic reality.
“The costs are so extreme that they would break us.”
Provincial taxpayers are already funding agriculture to the tune of $500 per person. Another $200 million in safety net funding, using the higher federal estimate, would require an additional $200 per taxpayer.
Wartman said the combination of a huge agricultural land base and a small population base makes the current cost sharing arrangement unworkable for a province like his.
“To put a 60-40 program on Saskatchewan really does drain us completely.”
Stewart scoffed at the assertion a fully funded farm program would break the bank.
“The province has fallen into an oil and gas windfall this year with oil prices near $50 a barrel and gas prices on the increase as well,” said the Thunder Creek MLA. “Certainly the money is there to do it. There’s just no question.”
Wartman said the Saskatchewan Party’s analysis of the province’s oil and gas situation doesn’t take the federal government’s equalization payment formula into account.
“They are simply ignoring the fact that the federal government is clawing back some 90 percent of all the revenue that we bring in.”
Stewart wondered why the NDP held out for enhancements to the CAIS program, including coverage for negative margins and an increase in the program cap, if it can’t even provide producers with full coverage on the basics.
Wartman said the province backed away from those amendments as the costs became clear.
“It was just unaffordable to the Saskatchewan people.”
Saskatchewan’s latest proposal on the CAIS program is that no province should be required to pay more than three times the provincial per capita average, which would amount to roughly a $100 million commitment from Saskatchewan in 2003.
Any shortfall would be kicked in by the federal government to make up the full 100 percent coverage for the province’s producers. Wartman said he hopes to get feedback on that proposal next month.
“We’re meeting as federal and provincial ministers in P.E.I. on Sept. 20. I’m hoping we’ll have some clear resolution at that point.”
Stewart supported the proposal but isn’t holding his breath.
“The federal government seems quite stuck on the 60-40 split … I’d be a little surprised if they changed it anytime soon.”
