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Farmers and an MPP call for audit of Agricorp
At county and district meetings across Ontario this winter, unhappy grain and oilseed producers have been demanding that the provincial government audit the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program and Agricorp, the crown corporation that runs the program.Huron Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell, who is chair of the Liberal party’s rural caucus, has endorsed the call. “Agricorp is not serving the needs of our farmers,” said the former parliamentary assistant to the agriculture minister in a press release issued in late January.
“Our office has not had a good experience” with Agricorp, says Brian McBurney, Mitchell’s executive assistant. “We have found it very difficult,” he says, to intercede on behalf of constituents.
Randy Jackiw, chief executive officer for Agricorp, was mystified by this. “There have been no concerns brought to my attention,” he told Better Farming.
Jackiw says Agricorp had processed 95 per cent of 2005 CAIS files by Dec. 31, more than 80 per cent of 2003 CAIS Inventory Transition Initiative (CITI) files for 2003 and more than 60 per cent of CITI files for 2004.
“Our costs (per file) are among the lowest in the country” for delivering CAIS payments, he told Better Farming. “We are performing and I think we are performing well. I understand that people have some concerns about CAIS itself. But that is a very different conversation than how it is being delivered.”
Back in 2000, Ontario’s auditor general chastised Agricorp for some of its practices. The organization lost many thousands of dollars because of day-trading the money entrusted to it on behalf of producers and government. Jackiw says that this was before his time and describes current provincial and federal oversight as “quite significant.”
He adds that there is a robust audit framework” in place now.
Administering CAIS and production insurance are Agricorp’s big jobs. The crown corporation also handles Ontario’s farm business registration and the plum pox verification program in peach orchards. CAIS administration in 2005-2006 cost $13.4 million and production insurance administration $12.1 million.
Administration of a CAIS file across Canada averages $730 and costs more than $800 when the federal government does it, Jackiw says.
In the 2005-2006 provincial budget year, administering a CAIS file in Ontario cost $507 and just under $600 in the current financial year because new computer systems were being installed, Jackiw says. BF
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