If you're involved in agriculture, last week was eventful.
Canada's Ag Ministers found consensus on part of Ottawa's plan to fix the Agri-Stability program. They all agreed to remove the reference margin limit. That, according to Federal Ag Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, will free up about 95 million dollars for producers. But they didn't reach consensus on increasing the compensation rate from the current 70 to 80 percent. The three prairie provinces were the holdouts on that, given they would pay out more through the program than other provinces across the country and right now, their budgets are on very shaky ground, thanks to the impacts of the year-long pandemic.
While many farm groups are encouraged that part of the federal proposal was accepted, not all of them are. Rick Burgess, the chairman of the Canadian Pork council says for that industry, removing the reference margin limit will do very little. He says producers, hit hard by fluctuating prices and temporary shutdowns of meat packing plants, were really hoping to see agreement on the compensation measure. Tom Steve, the chairman of the Alberta Wheat Commission called the meeting of first ministers, a success.
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