PRIME MINISTER ANNOUNCES $1 BILLION FOR CANADIAN FARMERS

March 09, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced two new commitments to farmers totaling $1 billion for improvements to national farm income programs. These investments are the next important steps in fulfilling Canada’s New Government’s commitment to replace the Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization (CAIS) program.

“Our government is taking another step forward towards replacing the Canadian Agricultural Income stabilization Program with programming that is more predictable, bankable and better enables farmers to respond to rising costs,” said the Prime Minister.

Today’s announcement will mean an injection of $400 million directly to producers to help with the high cost of production in farming. An additional $600 million is earmarked to kick-start new government/producer savings accounts that would go into effect once agreement is reached with the provinces and territories.

“This is exciting news for the local agriculture sector in the Peterborough Riding.” stated MP Dean Del Mastro. “This is something that I have kept a very close eye on during the past year and I am pleased to see our farmers getting the assistance and respect that they deserve.”

The $1 billion federal initiative includes:

• A federal commitment to the creation of contributory-style producer savings accounts;
• A $600 million federal investment to kick-start the accounts; and
• A direct payment of $400 million to producers this year to help address high production costs over the last four years and $100 million annually to address cost of production issues when they occur.

Today’s announcement builds on the $1.5 billion for 2006-2007, as announced in Budget 2006, that helped to address gaps in the system in areas such as production insurance, the margin-based program and putting in place a new disaster relief framework. This new funding will be available as soon as Parliament approves the upcoming budget.