The Saskatchewan and federal governments on Wednesday announced a “supplemental freight adjustment” to their wildlife damage compensation program, administered by Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC).

SCIC, the province said, has “reassessed and finalized” the 2022-23 program’s values for forage products to include an adjustment payment, meant to compensate eligible producers for the additional cost of transporting feed.

The adjustment is meant to reflect “higher-than-normal replacement feed costs in specific parts of the province.”

“In southwestern Saskatchewan, there are producers who have suffered multiple years of dry conditions and experienced an increase of wildlife damage,” provincial Ag Minister David Marit said in a release. “To maintain their herds, some needed to travel throughout the province to replace feed damaged by wildlife.”

The adjustment will only apply on program claims registered between Sept. 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023, and only on claims for stacked forage yard sites in the southwest and west-central regions of the province. To be eligible, the wildlife damage claim must have been filed after last Sept. 1.

The freight adjustments will be determined by location and will be applied only to the tonnes of feed that were lost or damaged due to wildlife, the province said.

Among its other features, the wildlife damage compensation program, funded through the federal/provincial Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, pays out on wildlife damage to stacked hay, silage, and bales. The hay and bales in question must be placed in stacks to be eligible for compensation.

All Saskatchewan producers, whether SCIC customers or not, are eligible for compensation under the program. A producer must contact his or her local SCIC office as soon as damage is spotted, but there is no enrolment required beforehand to register a claim. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Compensation to those sectors for domestic market concessions granted under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was telegraphed in federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic statement on Nov. 3, then fleshed out in a separate announcement Monday from Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.

For CUSMA — the result of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement during former U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration — Canadian dairy, poultry and egg producers can expect to share over $1.7 billion in funding over the years 2023 to 2029.

The new compensation for CUSMA follows $3.1 billion in payments and programs previously set up in response to concessions granted under the Canada-European Union (CETA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pacts.

“We made a commitment to fully and fairly compensate the market losses suffered by dairy, poultry and egg producers and processors, and that is what we have done,” Bibeau said in a release Monday.

Bibeau also reiterated the federal government’s previously announced commitment “not to concede any further market shares under supply management during future trade negotiations.”

The CUSMA compensation envelope, as laid out Monday, will include:

• up to $1.2 billion under the Dairy Direct Payment Program for dairy farmers;
• up to $112 million under the Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program for poultry and egg producers;
• up to $105 million to back further investments in dairy, poultry and egg processing under the Supply Management Processing Investment Fund, and
• up to $300 million for the Canadian dairy sector through a new program due to start next year, backing “innovation and investment into large-scale projects to add value to solids-non-fat.”

Solids-non-fat, or serum solids, are byproducts of milk processing that include lactose, caseins, whey proteins and minerals.

The government said Monday it plans to “consult closely with industry stakeholders” in developing parameters for that last program.

Under the dairy direct payment program, CUSMA compensation for a dairy farmer with an average herd of 80 head, based on 2021 production, will be $26,507 (25 per cent) for 2024, $22,089 (21 per cent) for 2025, $22,089 (21 per cent) for 2026, $13,253 (13 per cent) each for 2027 and 2028 and $8,835 (eight per cent) for 2029, the government said Monday.

“The government made a promise to compensate producers for the losses caused by the CUSMA agreement. Today, they can say they fulfilled their promise. We can now look towards the future,” Dairy Farmers of Canada chair Pierre Lampron said in the government’s release.

The feather sector organizations, in a separate statement Nov. 4, also thanked federal officials for fulfilling their promise on the CUSMA file.

“However, there is still more work to be done,” the groups said, as feather sector producers “expect the government to uphold its commitment to no additional access to our sectors in future trade agreements and bilateral arrangements.”

Canada had 9,952 dairy farms as of 2022; the dairy sector generated $7.39 billion in total net farm cash receipts last year, the government said. The combined chicken, turkey, egg and broiler hatching egg sectors, meanwhile, generated over $5.5 billion in farm cash receipts in 2021, and included 4,773 farms as of 2022.

In all, a line item in Freeland’s fall economic statement puts “full and fair compensation for supply-managed sectors” at $1.2 billion in 2022-23, $145 million in each of the following three fiscal years, $45 million in 2026-27 and $42 million in 2027-28.

Other items in the economic statement include a plan to eliminate interest on federal student and apprentice loans; restoration funding for uninsurable damage to farm and other properties damaged in Hurricane Fiona; doubling the GST credit for lower-income households; and a new Canada Dental Benefit. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The CGC on Tuesday announced the results of its review of producer claims in the wake of last July’s bankruptcy filing by Pipeline Foods, whose footprint in Canada included two small southern Saskatchewan grain elevators and a Winnipeg office.

The commission’s review found 49 eligible claims for unpaid deliveries, for which the CGC said Tuesday it will pay out compensation of over $2.2 million from the security posted by Pipeline’s Canadian subsidiary.

Pipeline filed for bankruptcy in Delaware last July 8 and suspended its purchases of grain from Canadian growers effective July 9. It sought another petition July 12 to extend creditor protection to cover its subsidiaries, including the Canadian business.

The company said in a release in July that it decided a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization “provides the best means to support its operations and to continue the process of selling the company in order to preserve company value and jobs.”

Pipeline said it “regret(s) the hardship this may present to our creditors, including farmers, producers and vendors and we hope we can work through issues together, in due time, with the least amount of disruption.”

Pipeline had bought its two Saskatchewan elevators in 2017: the former Mainline Terminal facility at Wapella, about 130 km south of Yorkton, and the Gull Lake Grain Corp. site at Gull Lake, about 50 km southwest of Swift Current. The elevators have capacity to handle 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of grain respectively.

The company had just got rolling earlier in 2017 with backing from players including New York agribusiness investment firm Amerra Capital Management. The new company had planned to store, screen and blend organic and non-GMO grains including barley, corn, rye, flax, lentils, oats, peas, soybeans and wheat at the two elevators.

Pipeline, which had also set up a South American regional office in Buenos Aires, said in 2017 it was “pursuing opportunities” to invest $300 million to $500 million over the next three to five years “to build a better, more sustainable supply chain in agriculture.”

As a condition of licensing, CGC-licensed grain companies in Canada must tender security for outstanding grain liabilities to producers, in the form of a bond, letter of credit, letter of guarantee or payables insurance.

If a CGC-licensed company doesn’t meet its payment obligations, the commission then uses that posted security to compensate eligible producers. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The $646.8 million, 10-year Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program (PEFIP) is now formally underway, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced Monday.

Each eligible Canadian producer is entitled to an amount proportional to quota holdings as of Jan. 1, 2021 and can apply “when they are ready to make an investment” between now and March 31, 2030.

Under the program, the government will cost-share up to 70 per cent of eligible investments, or up to 85 per cent for young producers. “Young” is defined as age 35 or younger as of Jan. 1, 2021.

Projects eligible for support include “anything that helps a producer increase efficiency or productivity, respond to consumer preferences, or improve on-farm safety, biosecurity or environmental sustainability,” the government said.

Examples include new barn construction and/or upgrades to equipment such as for feeding, watering, lighting, ventilation, heating, and comfort systems that would “promote energy efficiency and reduce an operation’s environmental footprint.”

Further examples given of projects “responding to consumer preferences” include activities to improve animal welfare, adopt alternative housing systems or transition to organic production.

Funding can also cover the hiring of consultants or other “external expertise” to “assess how the poultry and/or egg farm enterprise can improve efficiencies and productivity.”

The program will provide funding for any such “eligible activities” that started on or after March 19, 2019 and are completed no later than March 31, 2031, the government said.

Producers will be able to submit more than one PEFIP project application over the life of the program, “so long as their maximum funding amount has not been exceeded.”

The government emphasized that it’ll be each applicant’s responsibility to outline in an application how the proposed activities would “contribute to achieving one or more of the program objectives.”

In other words, the government said, PEFIP does not have a “predetermined list” of equipment eligible for funding. It also can’t rule in advance on whether a proposal will be eligible until a complete application is received and assessed.

‘Competitive’

Announced last month as part of a long-awaited compensation package against market access conceded to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade pact, PEFIP “will help Canadian poultry and egg producers be more competitive and make their facilities even more sustainable,” Bibeau said in a release.

PEFIP, as laid out last month, was budgeted for almost $630 million — but about $17.3 million originally earmarked for Turkey Farmers of Canada under the separate Market Development Program for Turkey and Chicken (MDPTC) has been reallocated to PEFIP as per “stakeholder requests,” the government said Monday. The combined 10-year funding envelope for MDPTC and PEFIP “remains unchanged.”

Sector-by-sector PEFIP allocations will now be $347.3 million for chicken producers, $76.9 million for turkey producers, $134 million for egg producers and $88.6 million for broiler hatching egg producers.

Based on quota, an “average” chicken producer will have access to up to $122,411 under PEFIP over the life of the program, while an average turkey producer can seek up to $147,356; an average egg producer, $111,203; and an average hatching egg producer, $375,297.

To be eligible, producers must either be holding quota, hold loaned quota and/or whole-farm leases with loaned quota, be “licensed, or equivalent, by a provincial marketing agency,” or be part of Atlantic Canada Hatching Egg Producers.

Other poultry and egg producers, as well as any educational and/or academic institutions holding quota, are not eligible.

The affected feather groups last month hailed the new programs not only for their direct support of farmers but also for “generat(ing) economic activity and investments in rural and urban communities across Canada at a time where our small businesses are hurting, and our local economies need it the most.”

The federal government reiterated Monday it “remains committed to engaging” the feather sectors on “full and fair” compensation for market access conceded to imports under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and caucus colleagues on Tuesday announced the specific contents of her previously-pledged $691 million, 10-year compensation funding envelope: a Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program and a Market Development Program for Turkey and Chicken.

“These two programs deliver on the promise our government made for full and fair compensation and are designed in direct response to industry demands,” Winnipeg MP Jim Carr, the federal cabinet’s special representative for the Prairies, said in a release.

“These compensation packages were an important part of the historic trade deal we struck with our Pacific trading partners, that has already been hugely beneficial to our export-reliant agricultural industries.”

On-farm investment

Under the Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program, for which the intake of applications is to launch “later this spring,” chicken, turkey, egg and broiler hatching egg producers will share almost $630 million over 10 years.

Eligible producers will be entitled to an amount of on-farm investment based on their quota holdings as of Jan. 1, 2021, the government said in a release.

Projects eligible for cost-shared funding will be “anything that helps a producer modernize, become more competitive and adapt to changing consumer preferences,” for which the program will provide up to 70 per cent of the cost. For young producers — that is, age 35 or younger as of Jan. 1, 2021 — that ratio will run up to 85 per cent.

Producers can apply for funding under the program “whenever they are ready to invest,” the government said, and if applications exceed the program’s allocation for a given year, they may be approved to be reimbursed in a future fiscal year, so as to avoid delaying the start of the project.

The program will also consider eligible costs retroactive to the announcement of support for supply-managed sectors made on March 19, 2019 in that year’s federal budget.

However, the government cautioned that for such “retroactive activities,” the applicant assumes the risk of not being reimbursed if the project doesn’t get approved or the costs are deemed ineligible under the program.

Among the examples of eligible projects are new barn construction or upgrading equipment such as feeding, watering, lighting, ventilation, heating and comfort systems that will “promote energy efficiency and reduce environmental footprint.”

On-farm investment funding will be distributed starting in 2021-22, the government said, with $347.3 million allocated for chicken producers, $59.6 million for turkey producers, $134 million for egg producers and $88.6 million for broiler hatching egg producers over the 10-year period.

Among the examples of the sort of funding a producer could expect, the government said an “average” chicken farmer, who produces 448,202 kg per year, would have access to up to $122,411.

A turkey farmer producing 302,299 kg per year, could qualify for up to $114,195; an egg farmer producing 654,772 dozen eggs per year, $111,203; and a hatching egg producer who produces 3,413,983 eggs per year, $375,297.

Table: Poultry and Egg On-Farm Investment Program’s expected allocation by region (in millions of dollars). Source: AAFC.

Market development

The government said Tuesday it would open the intake for applications to the Market Development Program for Turkey and Chicken that day. That program allocates $36.5 million for Turkey Farmers of Canada and $25 million for Chicken Farmers of Canada over 10 years.

The program is to help fund “promotional activities that differentiate Canadian-made products’ reputation for high-quality, safe and sustainably farmed food that adheres to strict animal welfare standards.”

Among examples of eligible activities given were:

• sector-wide advertising and promotion;
• promotional activities that “build public trust” in Canadian turkey and chicken products;
• market research;
• developing and/or expanding target audiences;
• increasing delivery of current market development activities;
• encouraging product development, product testing and research into new innovative processing and packaging technology at the primary and further-processing levels; and
• adapting current branding to meet “changing consumer expectations.”

Under the program, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada would provide 80 per cent funding for eligible projects, cost-shared with industry. AAFC also said it could provide up to 90 per cent funding for “specific projects aimed at promoting inclusiveness and diversity in the market development activities supported by the program.”

To access the funding, the two national industry organizations will submit a “multi-year strategy” to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for approval.

‘Long-term losses’

The four national feather sector organizations hailed Tuesday’s announcements, saying the funding will help Canadian farmers boost their competitiveness against imports from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) member nations.

“The combination of these programs will allow farmers to plan for the future, navigate the unique dynamics of our respective industries, and contribute to Canada’s goals of growing our agricultural sector,” the groups said in a separate release Tuesday.

The on-farm investment program, they said, “will in turn generate economic activity and investments in rural and urban communities across Canada at a time where our small businesses are hurting, and our local economies need it the most.”

The market development program, they added, will allow the chicken and turkey sectors to “enhance consumer engagement and continue to promote Canadian-made products to Canadians.”

“Today’s announcement offers new opportunities for our farmers to reinvest in their operations and plan for the future as they navigate the long-term market losses under the CPTPP agreement,” Egg Farmers of Canada chair Roger Pelissero said Tuesday in the government’s release.

The government said it also “remains committed to engaging the sector on full and fair compensation” for market share ceded separately under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the successor pact to NAFTA.

Further, the government said Tuesday it also “remains committed to addressing the impacts of recent trade agreements on processors,” as farmers and processors “depend on each other to be successful.”

Dairy payouts

Separately, the government announced last week it had seen 9,682 dairy farmers register for the second year of the Dairy Direct Payment Program, that sector’s compensation program for market share ceded in the CPTPP and Canada-European Union (CETA) trade pacts.

Payments to that group would total $459.4 million, the government said, bringing the total payout so far up to $813 million from the program’s $1.75 billion envelope.

The government said in November it would shorten the dairy program’s payment schedule to four years, down from the eight-year timeline announced in 2019, and instead complete all payments by 2023. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“It has been just over 110 days since we made the offer to the provinces to improve AgriStability,” Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Winnipeg MP Jim Carr, the federal cabinet’s special representative for the Prairie region, said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“We are asking for a clear indication from the three Prairie provinces whether they will sign on or not.”

To the Prairie provinces’ agriculture ministers, the two MPs asked, “have you taken the proposal to your premiers and to your cabinets? Are they supportive of these changes?”

In the wake of a virtual ag ministers’ meeting in late November, Bibeau went public with a unilateral pitch to eliminate AgriStability’s reference margin limit and boost the program’s compensation rate to 80 per cent, up from the current 70.

Those changes, the MPs said, “could lead to an increased payout from AgriStability of 50 per cent, or $170 million nationally, into the pockets of farmers who need it the most.”

Approval from the provinces, which foot 40 per cent of the bill for federal/provincial business risk management programs, would be required for such changes to AgriStability — specifically, at least two-thirds of the provinces, representing two-thirds of program participants.

It’s possible such changes could be made without any of the Prairie provinces on board, although the cost would be relatively more significant for those provinces. But industry observers say the federal government wouldn’t move ahead without at least one Prairie province’s approval.

That observation gets added cred from Bibeau and Carr’s statement Wednesday, in which they said they’re “awaiting a clear response from all three Prairie provinces to build a strong consensus to enact the proposed changes.”

At the request of the Prairie ministers, the MPs said, they would convene a further federal-provincial-territorial meeting, but “to ensure this is a productive meeting and that we can provide much-needed results for farmers, we would prefer to convene only when ministers have a decision in hand.”

Farmers’ AgriStability enrolment deadline for the coming year is April 30, Bibeau and Carr said, and “we need to implement these changes in advance of that deadline in order to encourage more farmers to sign up, and increase farmer participation in the program.”

Several provinces have said they want to see longer-term changes to business risk management programs — and Bibeau and Carr said Wednesday such changes would be reviewed in consultations on the next five-year agricultural policy funding framework, due to take effect in 2023.

“However, consultations on longer-term fixes to the business risk management suite of programs should not come at the expense of the short-term fixes to AgriStability that farmers are asking for today,” the MPs said.

‘Need clarity now’

Meanwhile, several major federal and provincial farm and commodity organizations lined up Wednesday to back the federal MPs’ stance and call on the Prairie provinces for an immediate yea or nay.

“We understand that the priority of all governments is on COVID-19 vaccination and economic recovery, but we need a consensus on AgriStability as soon as possible to mitigate the economic risks that producers are facing on a daily basis,” Canadian Pork Council chair Rick Bergmann said Wednesday.

“It’s not the time for backyard politics, hog producers across Canada are impacted by inadequate programs… When something is broken in our businesses, homes or farms, we fix it. It’s time we fix AgriStability.”

“We need to have tools that help us better manage the risks of weather, trade and production. The proposed program enhancements will do that and better position the beef industry to contribute to Canada’s economic recovery,” Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Bob Lowe said in a separate joint release.

“The AgriStability deadline is looming, and Canadian farmers and ranchers are already making their risk management decisions for the year,” Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Mary Robinson said in the same joint release. “There is no time left to wait, we need clarity now.”

Another eleven Alberta crop and livestock producer groups, in a separate joint statement Wednesday, said they agree the changes will provide “immediate improvements to the program for producers’ benefit” but also recognize the proposal “is not a long-term solution.”

However, they added, “accepting the current proposal would offer Alberta’s producers meaningful changes that will serve as a bridge to the next policy framework in 2023.”

For their part, the ag ministers for Alberta and Saskatchewan were quoted Wednesday by the Canadian Press (CP) as saying they want to have that ad hoc follow-up meeting Bibeau and Carr propose, so as to vote on and discuss the proposed short-term changes.

“It is nice to see after all this time that the federal minister is finally willing to bring her provincial and territorial colleagues back to the table to complete this important discussion on enhancements to AgriStability,” CP’s Bill Graveland quoted Saskatchewan’s David Marit as saying. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Southern Ontario MPs Neil Ellis and Tim Louis on Monday announced up to $559,285 in federal funding through the AgriRisk Initiatives: Administrative Capacity Building stream for Turkey Farmers of Ontario to “finalize and launch” its new insurance product.

The plan, once it’s completely in place, is expected to help “bridge the gap in existing coverage” for any turkey farm affected in an avian flu outbreak.

The plan would cover economic losses resulting from the difference between compensation through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for animals ordered destroyed and their “full market value,” the government said.

The program could help cover affected farms’ “incremental costs,” such as cleaning and disinfection, veterinary services, the disposal of feed, and other costs related to the resumption of operations.

The new insurance product would be mandatory for all of the 176 turkey farmers in Ontario, the government said.

Once launched, the plan would be administered by the Poultry Insurance Exchange Reciprocal of Canada (PIE), which already offers separate avian flu-related insurance products for chicken, egg and broiler hatching egg producers in that province.

“The turkey industry has encountered numerous challenges over the past few years and this funding is very important for the implementation of an avian influenza insurance program,” TFO chair Brian Ricker, who farms at Dunnville, about 50 km south of Hamilton, said in the government’s release Monday.

“This will protect not only turkey producers but by extension the poultry industry in Ontario.”

“This new insurance product will help Ontario turkey farmers in their efforts to protect their businesses and return to production following a sudden outbreak of avian influenza,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in the same release.

The AgriRisk funding stream supporting the new TFO plan is meant to support implementing and testing “new financial tools which allow producers to manage a defined business risk.”

Ontario’s, and Canada’s, most recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian flu involved an H5N2 strain on three turkey operations near Woodstock in April 2015.

By the time the province was again declared avian flu-free in October that year, the affected farms’ barns were depopulated and movement control measures and surveillance had been imposed on over 70 other farms.

The most recent outbreak of high-path avian flu in domestic poultry in North America was a strain of H7N3 affecting a turkey farm in South Carolina’s Chesterfield County last April. Over 1,500 birds on the farm died of the disease and the remaining flock of over 32,000 was depopulated.

Ontario’s Feather Board Command Centre said at the time the most likely source of the strain in that case was migratory waterfowl on the Atlantic Flyway, which runs north up into southern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada but “has not been previously involved in outbreaks among commercial flocks.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Denmark’s entire herd of some 17 million mink, one of the world’s biggest and highly valued for the quality of its fur, was ordered to be culled in early November after hundreds of farms suffered outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus and authorities found mutated strains of the virus among people.

Lawmakers on Monday agreed a deal that includes compensation to the farmers for idle machinery and lost revenue until 2030, the country’s finance ministry said in a statement.

Denmark was the top exporter of mink to luxury fashion labels, with its pelts in high demand due to high breeding standards.

The move to cull Denmark’s entire mink population left the government reeling, and prompted its agriculture minister to step down after it admitted it did not have the legal basis to order the culling of healthy mink.

Monday’s deal also allows farmers to begin breeding mink when a temporary ban ends next year.

In Canada, two mink farms in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley were placed under quarantine last month after animals at both properties, and workers at one of the properties, were confirmed to have COVID-19, believed to be the first such cases in Canadian farmed mink.

Testing at the site of the first outbreak showed the infected people and animals had an “identical or nearly identical strain” which has already been circulating in people in the province, “indicating COVID-19 spread from people to animals and not the other way around.”

As for the second farm, the provincial ag ministry said Dec. 24 that it’s “not currently known how the mink contracted the virus and the ministry is currently working with stakeholders to identify potential sources.”

Canada’s mink farms — fewer than 100 across the country, mainly in Ontario and Nova Scotia — reportedly began tightening their biosecurity in 2020 after COVID-19 cases began to appear in farmed mink, first in the Netherlands in April, then in Italy, Spain, Sweden and the U.S. as well as Denmark.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday laid out further specifics for the Dairy Direct Payment Program, which is set to start in the 2020-21 program year with direct cash payouts totalling $468 million.

But to get their 2020-21 payments, eligible dairy farmers will have to register with the program’s administrator, the Canadian Dairy Commission, by March 31 this year — and then re-register again by the same date in 2022 and 2023 to be eligible for payments in those program years.

Signed registrations must be received at the CDC no later than that date each year, the commission noted.

The CDC said it will collect information from provincial milk marketing boards on licensed quota holders, then calculate those quota holders’ individual payments based on the percentage of each producer’s provincial quota holdings.

These direct payments are meant to clear out a $1.75 billion federal compensation package announced in August 2019 for supply-managed dairy farmers’ market share lost in Canada’s multilateral trade deals with the European Union and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc (CETA, CPTPP).

Following an initial cash payment worth $345 million in 2019-20, Bibeau in November last year committed to roll out the remaining funds as direct payments over three years, down from the eight-year stretch originally planned.

Beyond the 2020-21 program year, the dairy direct payments are expected to total $469 million in 2021-22 and $468 million again in 2022-23.

Eligible recipients in a given Dairy Direct Payment program year must have a valid dairy quota license for cows’ milk, registered with a provincial milk marketing board or agency, as of Oct. 31 that year. That group includes producers operating with loaned quota under a new entrant assistance program, and/or whole-farm leases with loaned quota, as of that date.

There is no maximum payment per farm, the CDC said; the payment amount depends on the quota held at Oct. 31 of each program year. An eligible producer with 80 cows could expect around $38,000 in each of the program years.

The payments to eligible producers under the program will be treated as income in the year the payment is received — and income tax will be assessed on the payments accordingly, the commission said.

Bibeau on Tuesday also reiterated $691 million is still coming in the form of 10 years’ worth of programs for Canadian chicken, egg, broiler hatching egg and turkey farmers, also as compensation for CETA and CPTPP.

Those programs’ specs are to be “designed in consultation with sector representatives and launched as soon as possible,” the government said.

The government also reiterated Tuesday it “remains committed to providing full and fair compensation” for supply-managed farmers who saw further market share ceded under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — as well as compensation to affected processors of supply managed products. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her Ontario counterpart, Ernie Hardeman, “urge all provincial and territorial ministers to support the proposed changes to the AgriStability program,” they said in a joint statement Tuesday.

At a Nov. 27 online meeting with her provincial and territorial counterparts, Bibeau proposed to remove AgriStability’s reference margin limit and to boost the compensation rate for when a payout is triggered to 80 per cent from 70.

“Accepting the proposed changes soon is key to ensuring the enhanced supports can be applied retroactively to 2020, something we know farmers across the country have been asking for,” Bibeau and Hardeman said Tuesday.

“Since the federal government has confirmed its 60 per cent contribution, it rests with the undeclared provinces and territories to come forward with their 40 per cent share. We thank those provinces who have already confirmed their participation and hope to hear from those others soon.”

Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen, who has suggested replacing AgriStability, is still studying Bibeau’s proposal, his office said via email Tuesday.

“Supporting the growth and resiliency of Manitoba’s agricultural sector is a priority” for the province’s ag department and government, the email said.

Bibeau’s plan follows years of complaints from Canadian farm groups that changes to AgriStability in 2013 dramatically cut support after the payout trigger went from an 85 per cent decline in eligible margins to 75 per cent.

Famers want the trigger restored and the reference margin limit removed, but see Bibeau’s plan as a good first step. Most farm groups, including Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, endorse Bibeau’s proposal.

“Taken together this (proposal) would result in a 50 per cent increase, around $170 million per year in direct support to farmers who need it the most,” the joint statement said. “In order for these changes to be put in place, we need the support of a large majority of provinces and territories soon.”

While Pedersen is concerned the changes will make AgriStability more expensive for the Manitoba government, he has also said AgriStability has a lot of problems, including its complexity, unpredictability and the delay between when farmers suffer losses and receive payments.

“I think if you get rid of the reference margin limit and bring the coverage up to 80 per cent, yeah, it would certainly help,” KAP president Bill Campbell said in an interview Dec. 1.

“Those two things would make it so it has the potential to make it a feasible program for the ag industry.

“I think if some of the issues were addressed and fixed it wouldn’t necessarily be a broken program.”

After years as the target of farm lobbyists’ wrath, however, Ottawa is now holding the provinces’ feet to the fire on Bibeau’s proposal.

“For many years we have been consulting on improving the suite of business risk management programs and we agree that fixing AgriStability is the priority,” Tuesday’s joint statement said. “It needs to be simpler, fairer, more predictable and more generous.

“While the proposed changes to AgriStability may not be the perfect solution for all farmers or governments, they reflect a good start to achieving a national consensus and allow Canada’s agriculture ministers to continue discussing enhancements to the program while still improving supports for farmers today.”

The ministers “are all committed on more long-term changes to the suite of business risk management (BRM) programs as we begin consultations for the start of the next five-year policy framework, which begins in 2023,” Bibeau and Hardeman said.

“Improving the BRM programs is a top priority for our governments. Farmers have shown their resiliency during COVID-19; however, many could still use the added help that these short-term changes could provide. We have an opportunity to act now, to offer them increased support. It’s time to get it done.”

— Allan Dawson reports for the Manitoba Co-operator from Miami, Man.

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