In or out? KAP wants to know Pedersen’s stance on AgriStability proposal

[chuckChuck]

https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/in-or-out-kap-wants-to-know-pedersens-stance-on-agristability-proposal/ https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/in-or-out-kap-wants-to-know-pedersens-stance-on-agristability-proposal/

In a Jan. 22 letter obtained by the Manitoba Co-operator, Pedersen wrote to KAP and 19 other Manitoba farm groups that federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s two proposed changes to AgriStability — scrapping the reference margin limit and boosting program coverage to 80 per cent from 70 — would not fix the flawed farm income support program.

Pedersen was responding to a Dec. 17 letter from KAP and Manitoba’s other farm groups. Their letter was sent “to strongly encourage” the Manitoba government to endorse Bibeau’s AgriStability improvements.

The federal government is offering to put up 60 per cent of the money needed to help make AgriStability a better program and provinces like Manitoba haven’t agreed to provide their 40 per cent, Campbell said.

“To jeopardize that assistance and new federal money I think really sets the tone of this (Manitoba) government’s appreciation of agriculture,” he said.

In 2019-20 the Manitoba government spent $34 million on AgriStability. Pedersen has said the proposed changes would cost the provincial government $15 million more a year. That’s just 0.1 per cent of the provincial budget, Campbell said.

[bucket]

Scrap agristability....its no phucking good when your farm is competing against direct payments in the US to farmers...


When the crop was left out in 2019 the CFA asked for 2.5 billion ...governments said it was too much...

Since then the federal government has spent 400plus billion and Saskatchewan has committed to a tit sucking 4 billion irrigation project...

Would the farm groups please wake the phuck up.

[Guest]

i scrapped mine years ago

[chuckChuck]

Looks like all three prairies provinces are turning down the proposal by the feds to improve Agristability. None of them want to pony up their 40% share of increased costs! so much for their commitment to supporting farmers!

https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/economist-says-provinces-should-consider-bibeaus-agristability-proposal/ https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/economist-says-provinces-should-consider-bibeaus-agristability-proposal/


Economist says provinces should consider Bibeau’s AgriStability proposal
Farmers are operating in a less stable environment and improving AgriStability reduces calls for ad hoc aid
Allan Dawson By Allan Dawson
Reporter
Published: December 10, 2020
News

The cost of AgriStability bill would be a lot higher if the payout trigger was restored to 85 per cent, says one industry analyst. Photo: Thinkstock

The federal government’s proposed improvements to AgriStability will cost it — and provincial governments — more money.

But they need to be considered because Canadian agriculture and downstream industries need stability, says economist Al Mussell, with Agri-Food Economic Systems in Guelph, Ont.

“The risk situation has got significantly different,” he said in an interview Dec. 2. “Obviously there’s the protection of producers (to think about), but also there’s the protection of the capacity of our overall ag and food system… ”
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All governments face fiscal constraints, Mussell said. And because agriculture is such a big part of the Prairie economy enhancing AgriStability will hit those provincial budgets hardest.

“However, on the other hand, if you’re seriously at risk of undermining producers and the capacity of the system that’s something you need to keep in mind when you’re assessing the budgetary liability with changes in the program,” he said.

“I believe that risk is real.”

Mussell and fellow agricultural economist Douglas Hadley call for the reference margin limit (RML) to be removed from AgriStability, and restoring its payout trigger to an 85 per cent drop in a farmer’s historical margin instead of the current 70 per cent, in a November policy note prepared for the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

“The RML is unnecessary, and it is unclear how it can be defended today given the equity principle in the CAP (Canadian Agricultural Partnership),” the note says. “However, in order to bring past participants back to AgriStability, more material changes are required than is possible through the RML alone; an increase in the payment trigger fills this need.”

The note calls the reference margin limit added to AgriStability in 2013 “arbitrary” and says it discriminates against some commodities, including field crops.

AgriStability payments to Ontario field crop farmers would have been 197, 291 and 126 per cent higher in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, had the reference margin limit not applied, the note says.

Assuming figures cited are accurate the proposed AgriStability changes would increase Saskatchewan’s spending on the program by about $17.5 million, or 50 per cent, Peter Slade, assistant professor and Canadian Canola Growers Association Chair in Agricultural Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, wrote in an email Dec. 3.

“In some ways this is not a lot of money; it’s less than five per cent of the (Saskatchewan) Ag Ministry’s budget,” he wrote.

“However, the Prairie provinces, as well as all other governments, are finding themselves in a difficult financial position. It might be a hard sell to increase the ag budget when the ag sector, as a whole, has got through the pandemic in much better shape than other industries,” he wrote.

The AgriStability bill would be a lot higher if the payout trigger was restored to 85 per cent, Slade added.

“The likely reason for Bibeau proposing changes to the level of compensation as opposed to the trigger is cost,” he wrote.

Raising compensation to 80 per cent would meant 14 per cent more overall AgriStability spending, he said. Layering the two proposals brings it to 50 per cent more total spending. Bibeau has said that moving the trigger back to 85 per cent would equal a 70 per cent increase in the federal AgriStability cost.

“(I)f the Prairie ag ministers are having a hard time selling these changes to their government, then increasing the trigger would have been even more difficult,” Slade said.

Another argument for improving AgriStability is to avoid ad hoc farm support, Mussell said.

Farmers are voting on AgriStability with their feet, by withdrawing from it. But when farmers don’t participate in risk management programs, the risk doesn’t go away.

“It builds the potential for requests for ad hoc funding,” Mussell said. “And ad hoc funding is a nightmare for an agriculture minister.”

For starters it’s unbudgeted. By definition ad hoc leaves less time to plan and consider longer-term public policy objectives, Mussell said.

If Canada does enhance AgriStability there’s little risk of exceeding the amount of farm subsidies allowed under World Trade Organization rules, he said. The cap is currently around $4.3 billion a year and Canada, on average, spends about $1.6 billion.

[Guest]

numbnuts and barbie both said on the news (Cbc even) that they would not raise carbon tax past $50 , period.... and this is with the so called C02 problem dropping massively with all the planes grounded and citizens locked up
you see where that went ....
you will have to forgive the provinces for believing anything those criminals say ?
easy for them to say that while r a p i n g the provinces
don't you believe that they PROMISED the wealth distribution tax would not go over $50 ???????????????????

[chuckChuck]

So are you holding out for Trump style handouts with no strings attached?

You will be waiting a long time!

[Guest]

So are you holding out for Trump style handouts with no strings attached?

You will be waiting a long time!

personally , i don't need SFA from those low life pricks
just want them to quit pickpocketing me

[Guest]

So are you holding out for Trump style handouts with no strings attached?

You will be waiting a long time!

answer the question , tho , please?

[FarmJunkie]

Not sure why u guys even answer this guy. Anyone with half a brain knows this program is bullshit. It’s setup to create jobs for all the bologne brains that need a job. Most of the money in the program goes to administration not the guys who need it.