The cash advance legislation which is the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act, Bill C-34, 35th Parliament, second session, royal assent April 25, 1997, provides a repayment guarantee that is conditional on the producer organizations respecting the terms of the act and the guarantee agreement, as laid out in section 6 of the Act. However, lenders have told the department that they are unwilling to issue loans at low interest rates for the program without an unconditional guarantee. We are currently working with the Department of Finance to explore options to address the concerns of the banks.
Following some initial delays, producer organizations have been able to negotiate loans with their banks under the program for this year in order to provide their producers with advance payments for their crops.
We expect that this matter will be resolved prior to the start of the next crop year and that in the future farmers will have their cash advances when they need them.