Federal Agriculture Policy Framework

[TOM4CWB]

Thalpenny or Charlie,

I understood that the "Federal Agriculture Policy Framework" was to be released on line by now.

Has anyone found the online place to download this document?

What are the "Standing Committee on Agriculture" contacts to appear in western Canada in Feburary as witness to comment on what direction the federal government is going?

Has anyone been privy to what will happen to Crop Insurance, NISA and FIDP within this new framework?

When will we be required to have environmental assesments done on farm and plans in place like Ontario has done?

[charliep]

Changes are being proposed but I haven't seen the details. The bare bones program proposal from the feds is as you indicate (as others have explained to me) but nothing specific beyond that - that is a one size fits all program that replaces the current farm support/risk management programs.

Will this one be called the son of GRIP? Perhaps Western Grain Stabalization two? Perhaps I have been in the business too long when you start seeing remakes of old programs.

[parsley]

Son of a Grip!

Parsley

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

Have you folks at AAFRD seen this new framework yet, and what it intends to create in saftey nets?

I understand the fed is going spend millions to do a consultation during spring seeding, to find out what we think of this framework that noone has seen yet!

Go figure, I hear this process is supposed to be finished by June to be implemented by next spring, is this right?

[charliep]

The comments I would make is the safety net issue is the most contentious in the Ag. Policy framework. There are some basic guidelines but I have seen no more than that.

The timetable is the federal government consulting with the ag community during the spring. The next step will be policy program to put in front of provincial ag ministers in June with the objective of getting agreement/buy in.

My thoughts are that getting actual implementation (the parts that will get acted on) will take longer than summer of 2003 but that has to be seen. Still a lot of smoke and mirrors.