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  • Table of Contents

    • Part 1: First Nations of the Peace River Region
    • Part 2: The Fur Trade Era
    • Part 3: Transportation and Communication
    • Part 4: Old Timers and the Price of Land
    • Part 5: Dawson Creek: The Story of the Community
    • Part 6: Mysteries, Adventures and Indian Legends
    • Part 7: Arts, Crafts and Recreation
    • Part 8: Agriculture
    • Part 9: Church Histories
    • Part 10: Schools
    • Part 11: Health Care
    • Part 12: Industries and Enterprises
    • Part 13: Policing the Peace
    • Part 14: Pouce Coupe, Rolla, and Other South Peace Communities
    • Part 15: Chetwynd and the Fort St. John Area
    • Part 16: The Alberta Peace
    • Part 17: Natural History of the Peace River Region
    • Part 18: Interviews with Old Timers
    • Part 19: Remembering Our Veterans

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BN08-33: Evans Extends Farm Insurance Program

Recent History – 1999

Sept. 24, 1999

By Mark Nielsen, Daily News Staff

The Whole Farm Insurance Program (WFIP) has been extended for another year, Agriculture and Food minister Corky Evans announced Thursday, with committed $6.8 million to the endeavour.

That means the B.C. government will now be able to enter into an agreement with the federal government to secure federal funding under the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance (AIDA) program.

As well, Evans said the government is also raising the annual premium budget for crop insurance by up to $500,000 to support increased participation in all crop insurance plans and to keep the basic cost to farmers low.

“Farmers in B.C. now have even more protection against drastic drops in farm income and crop loss for 1999,” Evans said.

B.C. Agriculture Safety Net Committee member Marcus Jansen welcomed the announcement.

“I think that whole farm is a very significant piece of the puzzle in terms of safety nets generally,” he said. “I think it does a lot of things right in terms of protecting our very good farmers from a weather-related or market-driven price collapse.”

With crops to be harvested, Jim Smolik, who represents the grain sector on the B.C. Agriculture Safety Net Committee, could not be reached for comment.

Evans, meanwhile, said he hopes to make the program permanent.

“It is my desire that we number one fix it so that it has universal acceptance by the folks it was invented to serve and then number two make the argument to government that it be permanent,” he said.

WFIP was created two years ago, while AIDA, which Evans said is modeled on WFIP, began last year to help farmers deal with price-related trouble. Crop insurance, meanwhile, is meant to deal with weather-related losses. Sixty per cent comes of the funding comes from AIDA and 40 per cent from WFIP and between the two, a farmer can receive up to $145,000 for unexpected farm income losses this year.

The amount of compensation is based to 70 per cent of the farmer’s annual income over the previous three years.

“The net result, I hope, of these changes will be that farmers will have the capacity to hedge against risk, to plan their businesses for another year,” Evans said.

This year, more than 1,000 B.C. farmers will receive a total of more than $16.2 million to cover income losses in the 1998 tax year. To date, 415 claims have been processed, resulting in payment of almost $8.5 million to farmers around the province. About 125 grain growers will get $1.85 million.

This article is taken from the Peace River Block Daily News, Dawson Creek, with the permission of the publisher. The Daily News retains all rights relating to this material. The information in this article is intended solely for research or general interest purposes.

« BN08-32: Western Canada’s Largest Sheep Sale is in Dawson Creek

BN08-34: There’s Llots to Llike Llamas For »

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