New CAIS is coming but Ontario wants
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NORTH GOWER — Federal agricultural minister Chuck Strahl met with farmers at meetings across the province in July, announcing an agreement in principle for a replacement to the Agricultural Policy Framework.
In North Gower, July 18, Strahl received a standing ovation. But not everyone sang praises. One disappointed farmer later noted the event was not for Conservative Party supporters but to talk about a way out of a farm crisis.
At the meeting of about 200 farmers, Strahl was quick to trash the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program (CAIS). "If there was ever a slow motion catastrophe waiting to happen, it was CAIS, as it unfolded. Farmers didn’t understand it. Accountants didn’t understand it."
Federal and provincial ministers of agriculture met at a two-day meeting in Whistler, B.C. in late June, where they agreed to replacement programs but not the details. They will meet again in September. Unfortunately, it’s not a good time for the Ontario government to make concrete plans as Ontarians head to the polls on October 10.
Here’s what will change:
• The new top-end farmer contributory insurance plan (a kind of new Net Income Stabilization Account plan) will be called AgriInvest. By mid-July, 125,000 producers should have received cheques from the program, on average receiving about $1,800 each.
• The margin-based CAIS will be called: AgriStability.
• Insurance to cover crops and livestock will be called AgriInsurance.
• A national disaster assistance program will be AgriRecovery.
But this isn’t enough for Ontario Minister of Agriculture Leona Dombrowsky, who argues that Ontario also needs a risk management program for grains and oilseeds. The other programs "haven’t addressed our problems because they are margin based and that won’t work," said Arden Schneckenburger, an Ontario Soybean Growers second vice-chair. "The Ontario government has recognized this and will go ahead with its own pilot (risk managment) program."