Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman says the province is willing to pay 10 percent of a disaster program that would help drought-affected farmers.
But he couldn’t say when farmers might see any money because the federal-provincial program has not yet been finalized.
About 100 farmers from 23 rural municipalities that have declared disasters due to severe drought sat in the public galleries in the Regina legislature March 12 as opposition members asked Wartman why the government had yet to help.
A week earlier, about 230 packed the Cadillac Community Hall to talk about how to get the government’s attention.
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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
Doug Davidson, who speaks for the Southwest Drought Disaster Committee, said farmers need a program in place in time for spring seeding.
“This is only weeks away,” he told reporters. “In a lot of cases farmers and ranchers have used up their lines of credit. They have outstanding balances from last year’s inputs. They can’t go ahead and put another crop in without some dollars.”
Wartman said he has been talking to his federal counterpart Chuck Strahl about what could be done to help right away. He said the federal government might consider a per head payment for cattle.
The province will contribute to a Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration program for water projects, he said.
The southwest farmers have been asking for $25 per cultivated acre and $18.18 per acre of rangeland.
The committee calculated that, if 80 percent of the acres in the 23 RMs were affected, total payments would be nearly $116 million.
“At least now we have commitment from the minister for 10 percent of a disaster program to deal with the drought in the southwest,” Davidson said.
In Cadillac, Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP David Anderson said he needed the farmers’ help in convincing the provincial government that drought relief is important.
But the province has long said that Ottawa should fully fund disaster relief, and points to golden nematode in potatoes as an example. In December, Ottawa announced $5.4 million to help 28 Quebec producers affected by the pest.
Davidson also said Ottawa has been quicker to act on other disasters.
“When the trees blew down in Stanley Park it took them about 24 hours. When there was an ice storm in Quebec they were there immediately. When there were snow removal problems in Toronto they acted immediately. I don’t see why it should take weeks and weeks to deal with this.”
Albert Hanson, from the RM of The Gap, near Ceylon, said the situation is dire.
“The condition that we have right now is one-day runoff,” he said. “We have water in our small potholes. We have no water in our big sloughs. The dugouts run about half-full.”
Hanson suggested that pipelines from the Boundary Dam Reservoir, the Poplar River Power Station reservoir or Lake Diefenbaker could be developed to get more water flowing through the south.
