The ball is in the provincial government's court when it comes to triggering an AgriRecovery disaster program to help flooded farmers, says the Tory agriculture critic.
Blaine Pedersen says the province is stalling the initiation of a disaster relief program.
"The province needs to do an assessment of the damage, over and above the unseeded acres covered under crop insurance," he explains. "This is for flood damage and recovery for grain and livestock operations."
Federal and provincial officials have pointed farmers toward existing business risk management programs, such as crop and forage insurance. However, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has not ruled out the possibility of an ad hoc AgriRecovery program.
"We're asking the province to get on this right away. This needs to happen now. It's not something that can wait," says Pedersen. "My understanding is the province is assessing the issues about doing an assessment. They're stalling on this."
He suggests the Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments work together in approaching the federal government about a possible program.
"It would could be a much better case to take to the federal government if Manitoba was joined with Saskatchewan in doing the assessment and talking to the federal government," says Pedersen.
The main steps of the process for assessing disasters and developing initiatives under the AgriRecovery framework include (courtesy Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada):
A provincial or territorial government requests that an assessment of a disaster event be initiated.
A joint assessment is undertaken by the federal and provincial/territorial governments to examine the impacts of the disaster; determine what actions producers must take in order to mitigate the impacts and/or resume production; assess whether producers are able to undertake the actions necessary for recovery with the assistance available through the core BRM programs; and determine whether further assistance is needed to help producers deal with the extraordinary costs of recovery.
The findings from the assessment form the basis on which it is decided if an AgriRecovery initiative is required.
Source: PortageOnline