The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says current high grain prices and a need to balance the federal budget are no reason to cut back on business risk management (BRM) programs.
In a statement issued from CFA's semi-annual meeting in Toronto, president Ron Bonnett said "We would like to express our outright opposition to any potential budget-based programming cuts that expose producers to unsustainable levels of off-farm risk that is beyond their capacity to mitigate with on-farm and/or industry-led risk-management efforts." The statement said there are reports that cuts in AgriStability are being considered in federal-provincial planning discussions, and that producers need to be involved.
"The non-transparent, exclusive negotiations that have taken place to date on an issue of such fundamental concern to Canadian producers cannot continue if industry is expected to have faith in the upcoming BRM programs included in the Growing Forward 2 policy framework," he said.
