Federal and provincial farm safety net officials are debating whether tree nurseries should be considered farms that are eligible for farm program support.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz told a recent Senate agriculture committee meeting that program definitions make Christmas tree and tree nurseries eligible for coverage through the AgriStability program.
However, tree seedling operations that sell to reforestation companies are ineligible because they are considered part of the forestry industry.
Senators asked him if seedling producers would be eligible for program support.
“At this point no because it is not considered a farm activity,” Ritz told committee chair Percy Mockler.
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“There is a discussion going on between some of the provinces, British Columbia, Quebec and so on, as to whether or not that should be accepted under our safety net programs and then access to those programs. Those discussions continue.”
He said the debate is about whether people who grow trees for Christmas use or horticulture are different from those who grow trees for forestry companies.
For Robin Dawes, nursery manager for K&C Silviculture Ltd. in Oliver, B.C., it is a false debate.
Her company has provided seedlings to orchards and landscaping and reforestation companies since the early 1980s but remains an independent producer that supplies product to various buyers.
She told the House of Commons agriculture committee in mid-June that K&C was considered eligible for payments under the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program and received a CAIS payment.
Now, the government has reclassified it as ineligible and has demanded the payment back.
Dawes said other tree nurseries are in the same position because of an objection to the fact their customers are not part of the agricultural chain.
She said this could be a precedent for grain and oilseed producers who sell to biofuel companies that are not part of the agricultural chain.
“Imagine the surprise of oilseed producers in Saskatchewan and agricultural biomass producers in Ontario and other provinces when they discover that though encouraged to pursue sales to bioenergy markets, a precedent has been set which puts at risk their eligibility to participate in farm income stabilization insurance programs because non-traditional have become fair game in applying farm income stabilization eligibility,” she told MPs.
Dawes said once the British Columbia government discovered her company was not connected to a forestry company, it apologized for the 2006 demand that CAIS money be returned and began to lobby Ottawa to allow independent tree nurseries to be defined as eligible agricultural operations.
She called it a case of “mistaken identity” that Ottawa refuses to correct.
She appealed to MPs to demand that Ottawa drop its demand for the repayment of earlier CAIS payouts, which could put some nurseries out of business.
“In my humble opinion as a farmer, this is a matter of trust and honour,” she said.
By the time Parliament rose for its summer break, the committee had not responded to her request.
