Another CAIS beef!!

[coppertop]

I agree cowman. I don't feel that its any of my business what the neighbours spend their money on, whether its a new pickup and trailer or a mansion.
Everyone has different priorities on how they spend their income. My priority is paying my bills on time, keeping my house and buldings maintained and having a reliable vehicle that gets me where I need to go and back home again.

I live in a community where Lexus SUV's, Hummers, Escalades etc. are a common sight. I suspect that they are leased as a tax write off, but that too is none of my business.

[kato]

Grassfarmer, by good years, I meant that we were paying the bills. We were also putting any excess cash into expanding the cowherd. In those years, NISA was looking like any money we put into it would stay there forever, since we went for five years without coming close to triggering a payout. Even though they would match out deposits, we couldn't see how we could ever access the money. Some of the cattle we bought during those years did double our money.

It's funny how that worked out. We put our money into cattle, so we didn't put it into NISA, so therefore CAIS worked for us, but we didn't have any money for the CAIS deposit. Go figure. We were among those who did benefit from the program, due to this expansion, even though in retrospect, we didn't benefit as much as we could have.

We were totally dependent on cattle when the border closed, and went from being able to see the day, within several years, when the debt on our operation could be retired, to the situation we are in now, where we are looking at yet another mortgage to repay.

My bigger concern about this coverage level mess is for those who didn't scramble through it like we did. How about those who have lost their cows, rented or sold there land, or even lost their farms over this? I'm sure they are out there.

[kato]

Maybe this will help some people out a bit.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO DEFER COLLECTION OF OVERPAYMENTS TO FARMERS
CALGARY, Alberta, May 5, 2006 - Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board Chuck Strahl announced today that effective immediately, the department will defer collection of overpayments made to individual farmers under the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) program. In addition, interest will not be charged on overpayments until January 1, 2007.

"I'm pleased to announce today that where we deliver CAIS, we will not collect on CAIS overpayments until we've sorted out how much more money each farmer is eligible for as a result of our changes," said Minister Strahl. "It just makes good sense and good business sense to not give with one hand to take with another."

This announcement applies where the federal government delivers the CAIS program: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Yukon Territory.

In Budget 2006, the government announced an adjusted method of inventory valuation and expanded negative margin coverage that will result in a significant increase in money flowing to farmers. These adjustments represent a down payment on a new income stabilization program that will replace CAIS and which will be simpler, responsive, and bankable.

"One of the things I heard loud and clear when meeting farmers across the country was that the CAIS program isn't working for producers," added Minister Strahl. "What we've done is taken the decision to pursue a new direction that will take us to a stable and prosperous future."