Coalition wants $75 million risk management increase

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

A coalition of agricultural groups representing non-supply managed commodities is asking all Ontario political parties to commit to raising the business risk management program cap by $75 million over three years and starting the increases as soon as possible.

The Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition held a press conference today at the West Perth-area farm of Mark Brock to announce it wants the amount earmarked for the program to be raised to $175 million over three years. The current $100 million cap on the risk management program was imposed in 2012 “leaving many farmers with a major shortfall in risk management coverage,” the group says in a May 22 press release. The coalition is made up of Grain Farmers of Ontario, Ontario Pork, Ontario Veal, Ontario Sheep and Beef Farmers of Ontario.

The coalition says the total amount available for the program should be raised by $25 million a year over three years until the $175 million is reached.

Henry Van Ankum, coalition chair and also chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario, says horticultural farmers also support the request as their self-directed risk management is funded as part of the business risk management program. The self-directed risk management program operates a little differently than the risk management program “but they are part of this request as well,” he notes.

“We’re one voice with one message,” he says, noting the coalition speaks for more than 50,000 Ontario farms.

“Investing in Ontario’s risk management program is the number one priority of the non-supply managed agriculture sector in Ontario,” he says. “We need stable, predictable risk management programs to give farmers the confidence to work through volatile markets and make investments in their farms that increase local food production and grow jobs in the province.”

Van Ankum says they’re still waiting to hear “for some specifics as far as support for this initiative but we wanted to make sure during this election campaign that we got our message out there on how important RMP (risk management program) is and how at the $100 million level it’s not functioning as well as it could.” The political parties are aware of this request, he notes, as coalition representatives have been meeting with candidates, working with the government and meeting with the party leaders.

Asked which party would be most likely to support the request, Van Ankum says they haven’t seen the parties’ responses yet and they’re waiting to see them.

Gabe De Roche, spokesperson for the Ontario Liberal campaign, says by email “Ontario Liberals will maintain our strong partnership with producers.”

Liberals worked with farm leaders to implement the risk management program and “we continued to work with them to implement the redesigned program,” which features a number of innovations, such as the industry-managed premium fund that offers access to support beyond the capped amount in years when more money is needed. The inclusion of the premium fund puts more of the responsibility for decision-making in the hands of the farm groups, he adds.

Ernie Hardeman, Progressive Conservative agriculture critic and MPP for Oxford, says his party can’t commit to taking the $100 million cap off and increasing the program to $175 million over three years. “There’s a lot of challenges with the (province’s) $12.5 billion deficit.”

Hardeman says he agrees with the coalition that when the government capped the program at $100 million “they took away the two main objectives of the program, which was to be predictable and bankable.”

The Progressive Conservatives would have a ‘dedicated fund’ part to the program. “In good years when they don’t have to pay out, the government money that goes in stays in,” he says, noting that would result in more than the $100 million being available to pay out when there was a bad year. The dedicated fund “does take it in the direction of making it so they don’t have to prorate the payments” for farmers.

“I do think that, and our position is that when we’re able we need to get back to where the coverage that’s needed would be there,” he says.

Representatives for the New Democratic Party couldn’t be reached for comment.

Van Ankum says the problem with the current program’s $100 million cap is when multiple commodities all trigger payments at the same time there isn’t enough money available. The final calculations for the 2013 program were completed in the past two months and payments to farmers had to be prorated “because of the funds available. RMP payments were prorated between 40 and 50 per cent,” he says, noting that means farmers only received 40 to 50 per cent of the amount they should be getting because the total program was capped at $100 million.

“All commodities were prorated this year,” he says. BF