Feds reveal details of fund for farmers

Some Canadian farmers can now apply for emergency funding to protect their workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Monday.

A $35-million program first announced at the end of July will subsidize farms’ purchases of personal protective equipment and sanitary stations and it will help to cover extra costs in cases of COVID-19 outbreaks.

The government will cover 50 per cent of the costs under the program and 60 per cent if a farm is owned by women or youths.

“Our government will continue to support farmers and (food) processors,” Bibeau said Monday.

“They are key partners in Canada’s sustainable economy recovery.”

Farmers in Saskatchewan, Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories can apply. Bibeau said the government will announce programs that will be managed by the other provinces in the coming weeks.

Wearing N95 masks has been standard at grain farms since before COVID-19, because farmers deal with dust and rodents around some of the bins, said Keith Degenhardt, the vice-president of Alberta Federation of Agriculture. So the pandemic brought a shock.

“We saw the price on personal protection equipment increased,” said Degenhardt, who runs a crop and cow-calf farm with his family close to Wainwright.

The program will be applied retroactively to cover any COVID-19-related costs between March 15 and the end of next February, Bibeau said.