KAP Says $252 Million For Farmers A Good Start

May 06, 2020

The following statement (May 5) is attributable to Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) President Bill Campbell:

“Today, the federal government announced $252M in new funding for the agriculture industry across this country. For the first time since this pandemic started two months ago, we have seen a measure of progress and support from Ottawa in terms of business risk management programming.

Producers across Manitoba and Canada continue to feel enormous pressure due to COVID-19. Beef and pork producers have seen their markets disrupted because of facility closures in other jurisdictions and potato producers have seen demand crater due to restaurant closures.

Additional money in the AgriRecovery program is a good start however the federal government can only provide 60% funding into the program. We need the provincial government to step up with their portion of the funding, which amounts to 40%. Reduced livestock price insurance premiums for cattle producers and crop insurance premiums for potato producers are required as well.

Business risk management programming needs to work better for Manitoba and Canadian farmers. KAP members have been clear on this issue since well before the pandemic started and now is the time to get stakeholders together to fix these programs so they are bankable, simple, equitable to all commodities, and predictable.

As we have said previously, there is no better time for us to work together towards larger scale improvements for the next policy framework and build on the programs and supporting administration that what we have now to make it through.”

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