The number of farmers in Saskatchewan may be declining, but that
doesn’t mean there will be fewer farm vehicles on the province’s roads
next year.
Saskatchewan Government Insurance, the province’s compulsory vehicle
insurance program, announced this month that eligibility criteria for
farm vehicle registrations will be relaxed in an effort to ease the
financial burden on retiring farmers and farm operators whose annual
gross incomes dip below $10,000.
Until now, Saskatchewan residents did not qualify for farm plates
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unless they owned, leased or rented a minimum of 74 acres of cultivated
farmland or had gross farm receipts of more than $10,000 a year.
Under the new criteria, retiring farmers will automatically qualify for
farm plates for one year after they quit farming or scale down their
operations.
Farmers whose gross receipts dip below $10,000 must apply to SGI for an
extension of their farm plate eligibility. SGI will assess each
income-related case individually and issue a letter of authorization to
farmers who qualify.
In announcing the changes, Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby
said the province is responding to a changing agricultural climate.
“By expanding access to farm plates, SGI is lifting a financial burden
from farmers who are either shutting down or diversifying their
operation,” he said in a News release
news.
SGI officials did not offer an estimate on how much the changes would
save farmers or cost SGI.
According to census of agriculture statistics, there were 50,598 farms
in the province in 2001.
Of those, about 6,200, or 12.4 percent, had gross farm receipts below
$10,000.
Last year, there were a total of 140,000 light and heavy farm vehicles
registered in the province, including about 63,000 pick-up trucks.
