SCA Hopeful Upcoming FPT Ag Ministers Meeting Delivers Improvements to AgriStability

Regina – This morning federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau and Special Representative for the Prairies Jim Carr held a media event to discuss the latest on the AgriStability Fed/Prov Territories discussion about AgriStability improvements.

The session announced a proposed Fed/Prov Territories Agriculture Ministers meeting to finalize the discussion over the proposal to improve AgriStability by removing reference margin limiting and increasing the compensation percentage. These changes would make the program better for cattle producers on two fronts. It will be more responsive to negative events and it will make it more equitable among different types of production.

“The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association supports the changes proposed and looks forward to this coming meeting.” said Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association chair Arnold Balicki. “I am hopeful these proposed changes will be put in place for Saskatchewan cattle producers.”

The SCA has heard from Minister Marit and the Saskatchewan government that they have been asking for another meeting to discuss these changes. SCA supports their efforts to continue to develop improvements to BRM programming.

“We have had many discussions with Minister Marit and his staff and other MLAs about this issue. They are very aware of industry’s hopes to have this done.” Balicki said. “We are aware this has budget implications in a tough budget time for Saskatchewan. This is important for farmers and ranchers who continue to contribute to Saskatchewan’s economy reliably even through COVID challenges. I hope all involved can get this over the finish line for all farmers and ranchers in Saskatchewan and Canada.” Balicki concluded.

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association represents Saskatchewan’s over 12,000 cattle producers of all types of production from across the province.