Ottawa Further Boosts AgriRecovery Funding

The federal government has announced a further $400 million in funding for drought-impacted Canadian farmers.

Announced on Sunday, the money is in addition to the $100 million Ottawa announced earlier this month to be shared among livestock producers in all three Prairie provinces and northwestern Ontario to help deal with the impact of drought, which has left producers with little feed and water for their herds.

Given the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that farmers in Western Canada and parts of Ontario are facing, the additional funding ensures the federal government is ready to contribute to eligible provincial AgriRecovery costs on the 60-40 cost-shared basis, the government said in a release.

To date, the governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario have announced combined provincial commitments under the AgriRecovery program totaling up to $322 million, with Alberta at $136 million, Saskatchewan $119 million, Manitoba $62 million and Ontario $5 million. Using the 60-40 cost-shared basis, the federal share would be up to $482.5 million, not including British Columbia’s planned program.

The final federal funding amounts will be determined once the joint assessments of the disaster and program developments are completed. The government support will include direct assistance to affected producers, and help them with added costs of obtaining livestock feed, transportation and water.

“(This) commitment of up to half a billion dollars shows we stand ready to contribute our share toward AgriRecovery programs with the provinces, federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude-Bibeau said. “We are united in our goal of ensuring that farmers are fully supported through this crisis.”

AgriRecovery is a federal-provincial-territorial disaster relief framework intended to work together with the core business risk management programs to help agricultural producers recover from natural disasters. AgriRecovery helps with the extraordinary costs associated with recovering from disaster events.

The federal and provincial governments of the affected provinces have also agreed to increase the 2021 AgriStability interim benefit payment percentage from 50% to 75%, so producers can access a greater portion of their benefit early to meet their urgent needs. As well, British Columbia and Manitoba have opened up late participation in AgriStability to farmers who did not register in 2021 so they can benefit from this support.

Additionally, the federal government announced designations for livestock tax deferral in July and early August for prescribed drought regions in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The designations will allow beef producers who are forced to sell a significant amount of their breeding herd due to drought conditions to offset the resulting revenues with the costs to replace the herd.