The Ontario and Quebec governments signed up Tuesday to officially extend funding for some federal/provincial Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) programming in their provinces.
The extension applies to four ag programming pillars of the five-year APF other than the business risk management (BRM) pillar: renewal, innovation, environment and food safety.
The federal/provincial APF on agriculture programs’ funding and delivery was developed under the Chretien government and launched in 2003. It included the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program for business risk management.
Canada’s agriculture ministers agreed in principle in November last year to seek approval from their provincial governments to extend their commitments to the near-expired APF agreement on the four non-BRM pillars. The federal government granted that approval last month to extend the federal share of the funding.
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Ontario’s extension will run until April 1, 2009 at the latest. Quebec didn’t specify an end date for its extension in a federal government press release Tuesday.
The BRM pillar is covered under the first pillar of the Growing Forward program now being developed by the federal and provincial ag ministries. That pillar includes the new AgriStability and AgriInvest programs that replace CAIS.
“Continuing programs will allow for a smooth transition to Growing Forward, thereby addressing the concerns raised by all stakeholders in the sector, and will ensure the continuity of the efforts and initiatives undertaken by our farmers and our partners,” Quebec Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard said in Ottawa’s press release.
The extension on the non-BRM APF pillars “gives us the time we need to ensure farmers have the voice they deserve in program design,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in both provinces’ news releases.
The ag ministers, in a joint statement after a conference call last week, said they’re “committed to having a final agreement framework in place for Growing Forward by their annual conference” in Quebec City July 8-11.
Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador on Monday also approved extensions until April 1, 2009 at the latest for the non-BRM programming under the APF.
