FORT MCMURRAY – Brian Jean, MP for Fort McMurray – Athabasca and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities welcomes the announcement of changes to the Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization (CAIS) program. As part of the May 2nd budget, the federal government announced a total of $1.5 billion in support to producers, including one-time funding of $950 million being delivered through improvements to the inventory valuation method and treatment of negative margins under the CAIS program.

“Farm organizations asked for these changes,” says Mr. Jean. “Delivering the money through CAIS will better target assistance to producers who have been most affected by severe economic losses in recent years – the grains sector and the cattle sector in particular.”

After adjusting the inventory valuation calculation, the CAIS applications that producers have submitted for 2003, 2004 and 2005 will be recalculated. If producers are entitled to more money after the recalculation, they will receive additional payments. This initiative is a one time federal government injection of $900 million.

The $50 million in federal funding for negative margin changes for 2005 and 2006 is part of the annual increase in support of $500 million. Negative margins occur where expenses exceed income. This change will be cost-shared with provinces and territories, and will result in more farmers with negative margins due to back-to-back disasters eligible for CAIS payments.

Detailed information of changes can be found on the Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada website at: http://www.agr.gc.ca.


For further information:

Brian Jean, MP, Fort McMurray – Athabasca : (613) 992-1154 or (780) 743-2201

Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada: (613) 759-1000