Because the Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council (OACC) meeting was rescheduled until December 14, I do not have the most recent statistics from Agricorp on Crop Insurance and AgriStability so what was reported in November is still the most current. I attended a meeting on December 7 in regards to the Fresh Vegetable Acreage Loss program and may have some further updates.

SDRM

As of Nov 22, 2015 all application notices for SDRM had been sent out, which was 2,562 notices for a total possible request of $28.5 million. In 2014 2,393 notices were sent out for a total possible request of $28.56 million so no real change there. So far, for 2015, 736 producer requests had been received for a total of $11.5 million, and of those 642 had requested withdrawals. In total for 2014 1,987 producer applications triggered matching government funds of $23.42 million. This included the extra $2 million allotment of unused funds as per the commodity sharing agreement.

Given strong livestock commodity prices it could be expected that SDRM would receive the extra $2 million for the 2015 program as well, but we will not know for certain until after April 30, 2016.

Agricorp

In total across programs, more than 4,000 farmers have chosen direct deposit which helps reduce administration costs and thus benefits everyone. There will be continued promotion of this option.

Crop Insurance

In general the program year is winding down, however parts of Ontario still have substantial corn to harvest which is being held up by lack of storage for a larger than normal crop. There will be premium increases next year for some tree fruit crops as a result of frosts, but overall -- and I stress overall -- the Crop Insurance fund is healthy and many crops will see premiums reduced.

Ontario Registered Pension Plan (ORPP)

The Ontario government continues to move forward with phased implementation  of ORPP starting in 2017 for large employers, 2018 for medium and 2019 for small, with full implementation by 2020. They have indicated they will be using the CPP earnings exemption threshold of $3,500, and have made no decision yet on a blanket exemption for non-resident workers which would benefit our sector substantially.

Growing Forward 2 Non-BRM

At the recent OACC Tech Committee meeting, we had a lengthy and long overdue update on programs. For year one and year two, only 29 per cent of producer projects were approved. So far in year three, with the process streamlined the approval number is up to 72 per cent, however there are far fewer applications being received so this number must be viewed with some skepticism. As of August 2015, there had been 253 projects by Organizations and Collaborations approved for a total of $24.6 million.   

As of August 2015, there had been 2,981 Producer projects approved for a total of $32.21 million of which almost 1,000 were for PED. As of August 2015, there had been 592 Processor projects approved for a total of $28.6 million, 50 per cent of which were for labour productivity enhancement.

It appears that given the experience of the first two years, many producers are not wasting their time applying because of a continued frustration with the process. This results from going to a merit-based evaluation which is inherently complicated for everyone. We agreed that there needed to be discussion at OACC about whether we want dedicated funding for certain programs such as Environmental Farm Plans in GF3 or not. If we do, then that message has to be repeated constantly during the run up to GF3. If not, then we live with a complicated system that tends to frustrate producers.

CFA Business-Risk Management Working Group

We had an update by Jason Bent on the recommendations of this working group.

They focussed on two that have been asked for since 2006. These are elimination of the Agri-Stability viability test, and allowing the better of the five-year average of the Olympic average.

Diversified Operations

There has long been a recognition that diversified farms receive fewer program payments due to calculation methods which effectively penalize producers for being diversified. The working group has looked at models to solve this and presented what appears to be a very workable concept. It requires data to run different scenarios from OMAFRA. The staff at the meeting were unwilling, however, to communicate the request further up the chain.  

The model is referred to as the "AgriStability Commodity Spot Loss Coverage” and rather than separating out components of the farm business by reference margin, separates them out by inventory-adjusted revenue and uses a five-year average. The model can account for structural change as we all know that cropping programs can change as the business evolves.

Large Building Energy Audit

There has been no Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) posting yet. The Ministry has indicated it will not be posting citizen’s information for public viewing as originally proposed. However the ministry still seemsdetermined to move forward with the rest of what is clearly a bad idea.

Mark Wales is OFVGA chair, safety nets section. This report was presented at the annual general meeting, January 13. 

key words:  Mark Wales – AUTHORS, crop insurance,  Ontario Registered Pension Plan