Sask. has some concerns about national agriculture partnership, says minister
Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart was in Newfoundland on Friday with Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and other agriculture ministers from across the country to sign the new Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP).
The new program replaces the previous Growing Forward 2 (GF2) program and will take effect on April 1, 2018.
The investment of $388 million over a five-year period, the same amount offered under GF2, will support programs focusing on trade, research and innovation, value-added agriculture and agri-food processing, public trust, environmental sustainability and climate change, according to the government.
Stewart said he has some concerns about the new program, describing it as a “mixed bag.” It brings some positive changes, including improvements to the AgriStability reference margin limits, which help producers with low input costs, but some changes, including one to AgriInvest, will leave Saskatchewan producers less than impressed, he said.
“There will be minimum payments on both AgriStability and AgriInvest of $250, so no payments smaller than that and the annual government matching contribution for AgriInvest will be reduced from $15,000 per producer to $10,000 per producer.
“We have no flexibility on this, the federal government insisted that this be uniform from coast to coast.”
The largest concern Stewart raised is about a different change to the AgriStability program that now allows provinces and territories to enter the program after the deadline has already passed, with a 20 per cent penalty on the payments.
Late entry will not be an option for Saskatchewan producers, Stewart said. The deadline to apply for this year’s program passed at the end of April.
“I’m saying today that Saskatchewan
Producers shouldn’t get their hopes too high, because there is still no new money.
will not be triggering late participation in AgriStability,” Stewart said. “It’s still (the producers’) responsibility in Saskatchewan to sign up (on time) or manage without.”
Stewart said he hopes that during the ministers’ annual meeting next year they will be able to explore suggestions and possible changes to continue making positive tweaks to the program, but he also offered a warning to producers that the ministers are working under a strict budget.
“Producers shouldn’t get their hopes too high, because there is still no new money. So, anything that’s done that costs money to help one program will have to come out of another; so I wouldn’t expect major things to change, but hopefully we will find some small tweaks that will be helpful.”