Saskatchewan agriculture minister Clay Serby repeated a familiar
message to the province’s farmers last week, reiterating that the
province has no more disaster relief money to help grain, oilseed and
livestock producers.
Instead, it will continue to pressure Ottawa for an enhanced crop
insurance program, an enriched Net Income Stabilization Account program
and an acknowledgement that the federal government should pay trade
injury compensation to farmers.
“(Saskatchewan’s) two key, long-term objectives … are to provide
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some stability through a good crop insurance program … and to provide
a good financial stability package, which I think NISA could cover
off,” Serby said Aug. 19.
“What those two programs will look like at the end of the day, I’m not
sure, but we need to have these programs designed within the next two
or three months so that we have a good program in place for the new
year.”
Serby said the province has been urging Ottawa to contribute an extra
$200 million a year to the provincial crop insurance program, which
would allow for higher coverage options.
“Probably $200 million of brand new (federal) dollars … is what we
are looking for and that’s what would give the program the kind of
coverage that producers in Saskatchewan want,” Serby said.
“We need somewhere in the neighbourhood of 90 to 95 percent coverage.”
Serby also suggested that the existing agreement for government-funded
NISA contributions could change, placing a larger burden on the
province.
Under current NISA rules, farmer contributions to the NISA program
receive a matching government contribution that is cost-shared between
Ottawa and the provinces.
“If the level of sharing changes to where the province is expected to
pick up a larger share, that would put more money in producers’
pockets,” Serby said.
During his brief visit to Saskatchewan Aug. 19, federal agriculture
minister Lyle Vanclief hinted that Ottawa was considering changes to
NISA and provincial crop insurance programs, concessions that could
make Ottawa’s agricultural policy framework, or APF, more palatable to
Saskatchewan and other hold-out provinces.
The federal government announced the APF in June, but so far, only two
provinces – Alberta and Ontario -have said they will endorse the plan.
“Clay and I have (said) for a couple of years that we’ve got to make
some improvements to crop insurance to make it more effective,”
Vanclief said.
“Producers have said that they want improvements to crop insurance and
improvements to NISA so that they (have) better help in unusual times
… when it’s too wet, too dry, too early, too late, too cold or too
hot.”
In the meantime, Serby repeated that the province will not endorse the
APF, a six-year, $5.2 billion program that would be funded on a 60-40,
cost-shared basis between Ottawa and the provinces.
“The position that we’ve taken … is that we’re not signing the (APF)
agreement until we see an enhancement of the payout that Saskatchewan
producers receive,” Serby said.
“The province announced months back that the federal money that we were
looking for, the $1.3 billion, was all federal money and that there
would not be any matching funds on the province’s part, either for
trade injury money, or transition money or whatever the federal
government chooses to call it.”
Serby also defended the province’s response to the drought,which has
affected much of the province’s central and northern grain belt.
Last month, Alberta agriculture minister Shirley McClellan unveiled a
$324 million provincial drought aid package, which will pay producers
$7.15 per acre for cultivated cropland and $10 per acre for tame
forage.
Saskatchewan was criticized for its drought response – an aid package
that will see an extra $20 million distributed to livestock breeders in
drought-affected areas.
“Saskatchewan hasn’t taken a back seat and will never take a back seat”
when it comes to supporting its farmers, Serby said.
“Under the APF, we’re going to see a change. We’re going to see two
programs leading the way in looking after things like drought, or
flooding or disaster in Saskatchewan …. There’ll be crop insurance
and there’ll be NISA.”
