Subsidy loss could sink island farmers

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Published: August 8, 1996

POINTE-AU-PIC, Que. – The next few years will be crucial in determining if farming can survive on Vancouver Island, says a British Columbia farm leader.

Judy Thompson, of the B.C. Federation of Agriculture, said the loss of the federal feed freight assistance subsidy could be devastating.

Half the island’s chicken producers are considering either retiring or moving to the mainland, she told the summer meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture July 26.

A committee of farmers, suppliers and processors has been formed to try to find a way to replace the gap created by loss of the freight subsidy.

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“We need to find a way to get an extra $15,” she said. “Do we do that by getting more for our product or by finding a way to sell more of the byproduct?”

Thompson told the CFA the island’s 31 chicken producers have been asked how they will cope with loss of the subsidy.

“We’re sitting about half and half,” she said. “Half want to stay and half want to go, or are thinking it’s time to retire and get out of this mess.”

She said the real crunch will come next winter when the adjustment money runs out.

“We’ll be trying to find pennies here and pennies there until we find a way to make up that money.”

Chain reaction

Thompson said if many producers leave or move their production to the mainland, the processors will go broke for lack of product and then the remaining producers will not have markets.

The chicken farmer from Sooke said what is true for the chicken sector is true for other livestock sectors as well.

“The industry was built on the island around feed freight assistance,” she said. “If we don’t find ways to replace it, I think the farming sector on the island could all but disappear.”

The federal government has suggested farmers use the adjustment funds to find ways to become more efficient. On her farm, said Thompson, “it is going to pay down the debt.”

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