The department provided a price guarantee for the 1996 crop year to the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board under the Agricultural Products Cooperative Marketing Act. The 1996 Ontario wheat crop was severely affected by fusarium head blight which significantly reduced both the quality and quantity of the crop. As a result, despite the board's extraordinary and costly efforts to market the difficult crop, the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Board incurred a deficit in its operation of the marketing pools. The average wholesale price of the wheat fell below the price guaranteed by the federal government under the former Agricultural Products Cooperative Marketing Act, now the Price Pooling Program under the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, resulting in a claim under the agreement. An amount of $17.3M has been determined by an independent auditing firm to be payable to the Ontario Wheat Producers' Marketing Borad under the Agricultural Products Cooperative Marketing Act agreement.
In the House of Commons on February 2nd, 1998. See this statement in context.