by SUSAN MANN
The Ontario government is proposing to allow more agricultural products to be covered by production insurance, including, possibly, livestock.
Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal introduced the agriculture insurance bill in the provincial legislature Wednesday. It’s the first amendment to Ontario’s Crop Insurance Act since 1996.
“The new legislation continues to support Ontario’s agri-food industry,” Leal says. “It moves us away from ad-hoc programs and it brings Ontario into line with the rest of Canada, which is good for our economy and good for our competitiveness.”
An Ontario government Nov. 19 news release says Ontario is currently the only province in Canada without the authority to expand production insurance beyond crops to the broader agricultural sector. Production insurance helps farmers manage losses from events, such as weather, pests and disease. Costs are shared by farmers along with the provincial and federal governments.
Currently production insurance, commonly called crop insurance, is available for almost 90 commercially grown crops including grains and oilseeds and certain fruits and vegetables. In 2013, more than 14,000 farmers had crop insurance in Ontario, representing more than five million acres of farmland.
Bryan Bossin, Leal’s senior press and communications adviser, says by email production insurance payments fluctuate from year-to-year based on crop prices and weather conditions. Over the past five years they have ranged from $26 million to $132 million. In 2013, payments were $84 million.
The western Livestock Price Insurance program will have no impact on the proposal to amend the Ontario Crop Insurance Act, he notes. That livestock price insurance program offers coverage for animals sold at prices that are lower than anticipated, while the Ontario business risk management program helps Ontario farmers with similar risks, including fluctuating costs and market prices, Bossin says. Production insurance provides coverage for production losses, he adds.
Leal says the Crop Insurance Act changes being proposed show the government wants “to provide the right supports to encourage growth and innovation.”
It’s up to the Ontario farming industry to determine which new sectors will get production insurance or what specific products they’ll get. “My ministry’s always open to working with groups that come forward and our overall goal is to strengthen the agri-food industry and meet (Premier Kathleen Wynne’s) target of 120,000 new jobs in this industry by 2020,” he says.
Leal says in the upcoming weeks and months the agriculture ministry will be working with farm groups on new insurance programs. “The real message is we’re finally bringing Ontario into line with other provinces across Canada.”
But Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Toby Barrett says the government’s expansion plans must include that it provides more money in total to be available for all products wanting coverage. He adds public hearing should be held as the bill moves through the legislature along with a “fulsome consultation right across the farm community” to ensure questions are answered.
“In the event of a catastrophic loss, will this subtract money from other commodities that are presently covered by crop insurance?” he asks. If there were a big draw from one of the potential new programs “we can’t have a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
But “we feel Ontario’s agriculture needs this additional safety net and we support that,” he says.
Mark Wales, Ontario Federation of Agriculture president, says “we’ve been working on getting more crop insurance products for quite some time.” Livestock commodities “have been promised crop insurance for more than a decade, going back to the agricultural policy framework in the early 2000s.” In addition, a number of horticultural crops also don’t have programs currently. BF
Comments
Lets see now the gov't has said NO new money for Ag budget, yet seem to be prepared to add in livestock, fruits vegetables plus hort to the current "crop insurance" pool of funding.
Toby Barrett hit he nail on the head with his ?“In the event of a catastrophic loss, will this subtract money from other commodities that are presently covered by crop insurance?” Apparently, it would appear, that if this is anything like what happened when OFA OASC advocated adding other commodities to the original Crops RMP price protection program, we could end up with a severely capped and neutered original crop insurance program.
Toby Barrett is absolutely correct, “we can’t have a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul.” which is what happened with RMP.
The solution is oh so simple. Separate Peter's crop insurance program legislation from Paul's new livestock, fruit and veg plus hort programs.
It seems we have more Liberal bad math coming out of Queens Park . We are being told that 14,000 representing 5 million acres . If I recall correctly Grain Farmers of Ontario has 28,000 members who plant about 5 million acres . Some thing does not add up .
Post new comment