The legislation, brought in by premier Tommy Douglas in 1955, lent farmers $7 million by 1967 but it is no longer required
The Saskatchewan legislature last week agreed to repeal a decades-old piece of legislation that made credit available to farmers.
The Family Farm Credit Act was enacted in February 1979 to update a 1959 act and hadn’t been used for years.
Agriculture minister Lyle Stewart noted during debate on the bill to repeal the act that the last loan payments had come due in 1994.
He said the original purpose of the act was to make long-term credit available to establish and develop family farms and help intergenerational transfer.
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“At the time, the act enabled Co-operative Trust Company of Canada, or CTCC, to make loans to farmers,” he said. “It also enabled CTCC to issue securities and raise money to lend to farmers. Furthermore, the ministry of finance was able to purchase and guarantee those securities under this act.”
Stewart said there hadn’t been securities under the act for years.
He also said CTCC is now Concentra Trust and Concentra Financial.
“No other associated agencies exist under this act and loan guarantees have not been offered for many years,” he said.
The maximum available was $25,000.
NDP agriculture critic Cathy Sproule, along with others who spoke to the bill, agreed that repealing the legislation would have no impact on farmers.
But she noted premier Tommy Douglas moved the original legislation as a result of the 1955 Royal Commission on Agriculture.
The commission believed the federal government should supply agricultural credit, but in the absence of that, it was determined that credit unions should lend to farmers, Sproule said.
A federal report from 1967 says more than $7 million had been loaned under the act by that time.
Farm Credit Canada, then known as Farm Credit Corporation, was also formed in 1959.
John Nilson, MLA for Regina Lakeview, noted the long name of the 1979 act was An Act to Provide Assistance to Farmers in the Establishment and Development of Family Farms as Economic Farm Units.
At that time it was difficult to borrow money, programs had been implemented to help beef producers feed cattle during the winter and interest rates were climbing, he said.
The money obtained through CTCC loans could be used to buy land, repair or build farm buildings, buy livestock and pay off mortgages.
Originally, the departments of co-operation and co-operative development administered the legislation. It later moved to consumer and commercial affairs, then justice and then agriculture in 2007-8.
Sproule said governments have clearly over time acted to help farmers and should continue to do so.
The role of government is to “make sure communities stay strong and viable and that farmers are supported,” she said.
The repeal act received third reading April 29 and awaits royal assent.
