Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, honourable members.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you as an individual on business risk management programs under Growing Forward 2, and more specifically the AgriStability program. The complexity, the predictability, and the bankability of this program under its current format do not work. There needs to be a better way to deliver this program—more along the guidelines of the old farm income disaster program or AgriInvest.
If I may, I would like to share with you the issues I have encountered with the AgriStability program in the last few years.
One is the ability of AFSC to change the structural change calculation for the margin years on a yearly basis. I feel that once a margin is established, the calculation should be set for the five-year period of that margin.
The structural change calculation seems to be variable based on the opinion of the person working on the file. It seems that there are verifiers who understand the way a farm operation fluctuates with the market and the seasonal conditions farmers have to deal with, and they work around it with the structural change, but many of the verifiers just process the paperwork without questioning changes that have occurred.
In some cases, farmers have pastured their hay land because of poor production and reported it in pasture instead of hay. In many cases, this error caused a structural change that should not have occurred. The people who complete their own forms can easily make these errors as well.
The pricing of commodities is based on pricing for December. In a lot of cases, pricing is poor throughout the year and increases at year-end. Pricing of some commodities is a problem. The program has become so complex that many farmers do not understand it and forms are not completed properly. Many farmers want to complete their own forms and want to understand the program they are applying for.
Payments are few for many farmers. It seems that payments are not being directed to anyone who is trying to grow their operation or maintain the operation they have established. Many payments are directed to farmers who are downsizing and getting out of farming. These are not the farmers who need the support money.
Thank you.