Sask. can’t meet APF obligations

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Published: May 27, 2004

Cash-strapped Saskatchewan is proposing that provincial spending under the agricultural policy framework be capped.

Agriculture minister Mark Wartman said that under his proposed Canadian Agricultural Equity Program no province would have to pay more than three times the provincial average per capita APF funding.

That average in 2003-04 is estimated at $67.15, he said. Three times that is $201.45, and for Saskatchewan, that would mean an annual contribution of about $200 million. This year, the bill could be $140 million more than that.

The agriculture department estimates 2003-04 APF expenditures in Saskatchewan at: $529 million for the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program; $248.9 million for crop insurance; $41.4 million for the other four APF chapters; and, $29.5 million in bridge funding. Of the $848.8 million total, Ottawa would pay $509.3 million and the province would pay $339.5 million.

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The cost could be even more since the amendments to CAIS that provide for increased payment caps and coverage of negative margins passed May 21 after Newfoundland signed on. Saskatchewan has said it can’t afford that change.

“If they agreed to the equity program, I’d sign in a minute,” Wartman said in an interview.

His proposal also calls on Ottawa to pick up funding shortfalls.

He said the current cost-sharing arrangement of 60 percent federal and 40 percent provincial funds doesn’t take a province’s ability to pay into account.

“The 60-40 would still be the base,” Wartman said. “But no province should ever have to pay more than three times on a per capita basis.”

Saskatchewan has already limited its spending for this fiscal year and Wartman said if demand exceeds money available, the province will have to pro-rate payments, similar to what it did with the 2002 Canadian Farm Income Program. Wartman said the program has to be affordable, and he hopes other provinces agree with him.

His counterparts have not yet seen the proposal, but it has been sent to federal agriculture minister Bob Speller, and the Saskatchewan and federal deputies met to discuss it May 20.

“I think that Ottawa will struggle with it,” Wartman predicted.

Calls to Speller’s office were not returned by Western Producer deadlines.

About the author

Karen Briere

Karen Briere

Karen Briere grew up in Canora, Sask. where her family had a grain and cattle operation. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Regina and has spent more than 30 years covering agriculture from the Western Producer’s Regina bureau.

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