It will be a bit later than promised and much later than initially expected, but by early December, Canadian farmers will begin to see their initial share of Ottawa’s $600 million “transition” funding, says a senior Agriculture Canada official.
Danny Foster, acting director general of program planning and performance, said in a Nov. 7 interview the cheques will be sent out the last week in November to each farmer eligible to join the Net Income Stabilization Account program.
However, NISA will not be the vehicle this year to deliver the funds, as it was last year for the first year of the two-year program.
Read Also
StatCan stands by its model-based crop forecast
Statistics Canada’s model-based production estimates are under scrutiny, but agency says it is confident in the results.
Individual payments will be based on the farm’s eligible net sales and he said the initial payment likely will be between $3,000 and $4,000 for the average farm.
Last spring when the government first announced the program, farm groups were hoping money would flow by summer. In July when federal and provincial ministers met in Winnipeg, there was talk of cheques being mailed by early autumn.
In September, assistant deputy agriculture minister Doug Hedley said cheques would be cut by the end of October.
“We underestimated the complexity of doing it this way,” said Foster.
“It has taken us longer than we expected.”
Foster said the first payment will be 3.5 percent of eligible net sales (gross sales revenues minus the cost of any purchases of the product being sold) and the average eligible net sales on Canadian farmers is between $80,000 and $100,000.
He said the initial payment will consume between $400 million and $500 million of the available $600 million. The remainder will be sent out in February.
The money is meant to help farmers move from existing farm safety net programs to the new business risk management programs under the agricultural policy framework.
