Farm Business Management Council regroups after cuts

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Canadian Farm Business Management Council has slashed its staff and operations to cope with a sudden cut in federal funding.

The Ottawa-based council has lost four people of the nine it previously employed, including its executive director, Wendell Joyce.

The council’s chairman, Donald Daigle, says the decision to lay off staff was made because “it’s not business as usual.”

“We’ve regrouped and we’re putting a new ‘vehicle’ together,” he says.

Precipitating the regrouping is a federal decision in April to cut the council’s funding this year to $1.5 million from $2.6 million. Daigle says a restructuring proposal will be presented to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s office on June 1. The council has hired Guelph-based consultant James Farrar to help them develop the proposal.

Until two years ago the council, which distributes information, develops workshops and coordinates an annual conference, received federal funding in multi-year agreements. Most funding is from the federal government. The remainder comes from conference fees, sponsorships and the sale of products and royalties.

Daigle says verbal discussions with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada representatives led the council to believe the multi-year funding arrangement would continue. But last year it obtained only one-year funding. According to the council’s annual report for that year, the funding came for the first time with a caveat: the program was subject to audit by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and adjustments would result in repayments of contributions.

Daigle says the council is being asked to build a case for obtaining $1.5 million funding. Any funding obtained beyond that would have to be discussed project by project, he says. Although the funding covers only one year, the council has been asked to provide information for three years of operation.

Daigle says there has been “a little bit of a disconnect” between Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s office and the council. He says in the past, council board members have been advised they should not lobby to obtain the money: “But I guess lobbying and raising profile are two different things.” He adds that he’s spent more time over the past six months speaking to the minister’s office than in the past.

Asked if a projected cut of more than 40 per cent to AAFC’s budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year played a role, Daigle says he’s heard there are no cuts — just money reallocated. “But I’m too far away – I’m not in the minister’s office everyday.”

He notes there are overlaps in the council’s activities and some of the provinces. As well, the provinces have received more money under the Growing Forward program. “My gut feeling is the federal government wants the provinces to put some of their money they’ve received (from Growing Forward) with us in different projects.”

Former board director Liz Robertson, however, wonders if budget constraints may have played a role. Robertson joined the board in August 2009 and subsequently resigned because of time constraints.

Greg Pearce, a consultant working through the changes with the council also wonders if cuts to the department’s budget were a factor. “There would have to be, logically, some budgetary pressures given the significant cut in their own budget allocation from Parliament,” he says.

He says AAFC staff told council representatives not to attribute the decision to reduce funding to budget cuts.

Patrick Girard, an AAFC spokesperson, says the ministry cannot comment on the reasons for the cut or its implications because it is still in discussions with the council.

Pearce says the cut came as a surprise. Feedback from Agriculture Canada’s renewal division, which administers the council’s funding, had previously been positive, although it had also been asking for a change.

“At the end of the day it looks like it’s very political,” he says. BF