Ottawa to help flooded farmers recoup losses

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/08/2011 (5559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA will get a big break on its 2011 flood-fighting bill, as the federal government moves to kick in some cash to support farmers struggling with sodden fields.

At a press conference in Saskatchewan on Thursday, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced the Canadian government will channel $448 million into agricultural-recovery programs in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The Manitoba portion of the pie is $138.8 million.

That cash will be used to cover 60 per cent of the cost of the $194-million AgriRecovery Program, which the province announced on June 30. The province will pick up the balance of the tab and administer the program, which will offer payouts to farmers who couldn’t seed due to flooded land, or lost seeded land to the water.

“Extreme weather and flooding is once again hurting our Prairie farmers,” Ritz said.

“Governments have come together to develop a relief package that will help producers restore damaged cropland and transport feed or livestock so they can continue to produce the high-quality grains and livestock the world has come to expect.”

Stan Struthers, Manitoba’s agriculture minister, was in Churchill for the year’s first grain shipment when he heard the announcement had been made. “I’m pleased they’ve come through with some support,” he said. “We’ve been working with them for a long time… I think we still have some work to do.”

In particular, Struthers said, he hopes the federal government will come through with similar cost-sharing plans for forage restoration for cattle producers, as well as compensation for feedlot operators, tree nurseries and berry growers.

“Some Manitoba producers slipped through the cracks of the disaster-assistance program,” he said. “I encourage the federal government to take a look at that, as well.”

Keystone Agricultural Producers estimates 1.2 million hectares in Manitoba were destroyed by flooding, costing the provincial economy $3 billion.

KAP president Doug Chorney praised Ritz’s announcement, saying the farm-policy group is “pleased that the federal government stepped up to the plate so that farmers know what to expect” from the AgriRecovery Program.

“This tops it up. It’s still not really enough when you consider the cost of running a farm, but we can recognize the fact that the federal and provincial governments can never have enough money to replace all that’s lost in a disaster like this.”

The payment amounts will reach up to $30 per acre for land that couldn’t be seeded before June 20 and for land that was seeded but flooded out before July 31. That is on top of crop insurance payouts of either $50 or $65 per acre; KAP was hoping total compensation packages would be about $100 per acre to keep farms from sinking into financial ruin. “We’re very satisfied with the program,” Chorney said. “It’s really responded to all the input we’ve had from our commodity groups, as well as cattle, to develop a program that addresses as best as possible the assistance needed.”

Farmers in waterlogged southwestern Manitoba are looking to the next steps in recovering from a flood that left a quarter of the province’s farmland unusable. There remains a multitude of roads that need to be rebuilt to allow farmers to access their fields, Chorney said.

Then there’s the matter of finding a better way to handle the water flow.

“We have to get a water-management strategy in the western part of the province,” said Walter Finlay, a grain farmer near Souris who was forced to let thousands of acres go unseeded and swallowed up by water. “There are numerous plans out there, and in the long run it would be far cheaper (than repeat recovery plans).”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca