Province laments pace of canola relief

Feds say funds for farmers on the way

Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister is questioning whether canola farmers are a priority for Ottawa, as producers remain unable to draw on more generous cash advances promised more than three weeks ago.

But the federal government counters that interest relief for cash-strapped farmers is coming in just days.

David Marit penned a letter to his federal counterpart, Marie-claude Bibeau. In it he pushed her for a “rapid implementation” of changes to the Advance Payments Program (APP) announced on May 1. He said time is pressing on canola growers, who must pay for inputs for this year’s crop but don’t want to sell last year’s harvest at depressed prices.

“The program’s effectiveness will be drastically reduced if the funds are not available to producers early in the growing season,” he wrote.

Canola prices have sunk due to what is effectively a Chinese blockade on Canadian canola, after Beijing began stripping handlers of their import registrations. Marit and producer groups pressed for improvements to APP, a cash advance program, to help farmers weather the storm through easier access to credit.

Bibeau pledged to raise the ceiling on loans from $400,000 to $1 million, while increasing the interest-free portion from $100,000 to $500,000.

But the Canadian Canola Growers Association, one of 36 organizations that administers the program on behalf of the federal government, confirmed that it cannot currently issue advances according to the new limits. Agriculture and Agri-food Canada told the Leader-post the federal government still needs to pass regulations to allow it to do so.

Katie Hawkins, Bibeau’s director of communications, said the department still has to do new contracts with all of those 36 bodies.

“I know it’s very difficult for farmers,” she said. “It would be so great to flick a switch and make it happen immediately, but there are just technical and administrative details that need to be put into place before it’s ready to roll.”

The department explained in a statement that the whole $400,000 available under the existing ceiling will become available interest-free “within the coming days,” instead of the current $100,000 limit. Raising the overall ceiling to $1 million will take longer, however, as will bumping the interest-free portion further to $500,000.

Marit told reporters Friday he fears it could take until the end of July, or perhaps longer, for the changes to be in effect. He argued the feds could have got some of the groundwork done before the May 1 announcement, when Saskatchewan was still lobbying for more generous cash advances.

Marit said he was “very concerned” by what he called a delay in implementing the higher ceilings.

“We were hoping we would hear something by mid May,” he said. “Now, to hear that we could be months away from hearing it yet, it’s very disappointing on our part that this hasn’t happened quicker.”

He suggested that the timing couldn’t be worse. He called spring seeding season “the big expense of the year.”

“Seeding is obviously well in full swing. We’re well over 70 per cent of the crop is in the ground, and farmers have bills to pay,” said Marit, before questioning Ottawa’s commitment to getting the job done. “If you want to make it a priority, you can make it a priority.”

But Bibeau said in a statement that the federal government is “working around the clock” to support farmers. She said her department let them know the changes were coming as soon as possible, so they’d know what tools were available to manage their cash flow.

“We are following through on our commitment,” she said.