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www.estevanmercury.ca »NEWS« Wednesday, July 14, 2010 A5

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By Norm Park

Of The Mercury

The hard-pressed, water-logged Saskatchewan farm-ers will be receiving some financial assistance in the near future.

On July 8 the Prairie and federal governments an-nounced a joint relief package for producers whose crops have been flooded or who never even got to seed due to extremely wet conditions this past spring.

The Excess Moisture Program (EMP), gives Prai-rie farmers $30 per acre for unseeded land that would have normally been within their planting scope this year, or for crops that have been destroyed due to fl ood con-ditions.

Based on a traditional 60-40 percentage formula for joint federal/provincial plans, the federal government will be providing $18 and the province $12 for each eligible acre involved in the EMP. The program will be administered by the Crop Insurance Corpo-ration in Saskatchewan.

Of the $450 million

Immediate aid rolling out for fl ooded producerspackage, $360 million will be heading to Sas-katchewan, the hardest hit province.

Saskatchewan’s Ag-riculture Minister Bob Bjornerud, speaking with The Mercury and Agri-news July 9, said the ben-efi ts will begin rolling out in early August.

He said there is ap-proximately $283 million in additional damages brought about by the fl oods that will have to be addressed and so far, only the province is handling that program, which will have to deal with washed out grid roads and culverts, and other infrastruc-ture items, plus personal rural losses.

“Maybe the federal gov-ernment will step up to help out there too, we’ll have to see,” said Bjornerud from his Saltcoats home, located near Yorkton, the hardest hit area in the province.

If farmers carry crop in-surance, the fl ooded acreages will be eligible for up to $50 per acre of relief there, giving those who require aid, and purchased crop insurance, a

total of $80 per acre. Bjornerud said the crop

insurance group had an addi-tional $300 million in the cof-fers to carry into the new crop year, which will now prob-ably be gobbled up by the demands. The other amounts, such as the $144 million for the provincial share of the EMP and infrastructure re-pairs, will have to come from the province’s well publicized “rainy day” account.

Bjornerud said the as-sistance under the EMP, ap-plied only to the grain side of the business since cattle and hog producers haven’t lost calves or weanling pigs as a result of the fl ood, but he did acknowledge that they will be impacted in terms

of gaining access to hay lands, pastures and alfalfa fi elds.

Dwain Lingenfel-ter, leader of the oppo-sition New Democratic Party, said he was disap-pointed to hear that the aid package was com-ing in at a low fi gure. He said his team felt that something closer to $100 per acre would have been more realistic when one fi gured input costs could be as high as $150 per acre.

“They’re trying to make this sound like it’s a huge relief package, this $450 million, but when you con-sider the fact that over 10,000 farmers are being impacted and require assistance, it doesn’t amount to that much … in fact it’s less than half of what was spent for security alone in Toronto last week-end,” Lingenfelter said, refer-ring to the $1.2 billion price tag that went into security services for the three-day G8 and G20 international summit that was hosted by the federal and Ontario governments in Huntsville and Toronto.

“Those people setting up in Toronto got what they figured they needed. The cheques were written, no questions asked. But our livestock producers are being left out of the relief program entirely and they can’t be-lieve it. Young farmers with mortgages to pay … well, if interest rates keep going up, we’ll be seeing some real devastation and heartbreak on the Saskatchewan farms later this year or early next year,” Lingenfelter said.

Bjornerud said he real-ized $30 per acre would not be covering the entire losses, saying that he agreed that input costs are traditionally around $150 per acre, de-

pending on crop types and conditions.

“But at least it’s some-thing and it’s immediate and should be easy to apply for,” he said.

Crop insurance assessors will determine eligible acre-age. Producers not enrolled in crop insurance, who could not get their land seeded by June 20 or lost crop because of fl ooding on or before July 31, will need to fi ll out an application form which will be available at all RM offi ces. The deadline for the EMP program application will be September 30.

The fl ooded plains were viewed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper from a he-licopter late last week. The PM spent a few minutes on the ground shortly after, but did not field any me-dia questions and met only briefl y with a local farmer in a pre-arranged session before heading on to Calgary and the Stampede. Harper was joined by Bjornerud, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and fed-eral Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Gerry Ritz for the quick tour.

Bob Bjornerud Dwain Lingenfelter