Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I'll take a stab at that one. We consult with the federal government whenever we get a chance, and we have some priorities, particularly with business risk management. This ties in with the whole idea of Growing Forward, which we believe is really like a national far

Finance committee  I guess we're not sure exactly what the question is. What did you want to tell us about?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. My name is Ray Orb and I am the vice-president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities. I thank you for inviting SARM to present here today regarding business risk management programs under Growing Forward 2. SARM represent

Agriculture committee  You're referring to the timeliness, I guess. There are a number of things that would have to happen. I know that provincially, the crop insurance has to assess the damage. I think they then report back and the federal government then has to.... The province has to actually declar

Agriculture committee  Yes, that's a very good question. I think it's a very timely question as well. I've actually been in Ottawa three times in the last three weeks, and the first meeting I went to was with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the catchphrase apparently now in Ottawa is “climate var

Agriculture committee  It's a start, but it's to recognize, I think, that our climate is a lot more extreme that it has been for quite some time. I've noticed as a farmer that in the 30 years I've farmed, it hasn't been as extreme as it's been over the last five years. There are a lot of things, and I

Agriculture committee  There are a whole lot of things that come into that. BSE was a disaster. But the program wasn't designed to handle it, because the margins dropped off and so you had no coverage.

Agriculture committee  It's a tough question, but it's a question our organization is aware of. We're hearing that our governments, all governments, would like to balance their budgets. Let's face it, if we had our choice, we'd like to keep a good insurance program—something farmers could participate i

Agriculture committee  We call it reshuffling. AgriInvest is basically the top 15% of your margin. AgriStability handles the other 85%.

Agriculture committee  That's right, it could.

Agriculture committee  It is hard to predict how it would actually come out, whether it would cost the government more or less. I know that AgriStability is a huge irritant. You quoted some of the numbers. We know there've been payments going out. We have difficulty tracking those payments, finding out

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I had a comment on that. I think there are some ways we can save. I know the Province of Saskatchewan now does its own administration of AgriStability, and it has helped tremendously. I think you have people who understand the problems that are indigenous to Saskatchewan, s

Agriculture committee  We could certainly forward that.

Agriculture committee  The short answer could be yes, that it could be looked at. I think niche markets are important. Producers could be given the choice, as it is now, if you want to enrol in a program. It's something that would have to be looked at for new programming. I think it would be a good ide