September/October 2006
Index
The
Ontario Grain & Oilseed Safety Net Working Group
The OCPA continues to work with the six other Ontario grain and oilseed commodity
groups (Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board, Ontario Canola Growers’
Association, Ontario Coloured Bean Growers’ Association, Ontario Soybean
Growers, Ontario Wheat Producers’ Marketing Board and the Seed Corn Growers
of Ontario) in co-ordinated lobby efforts relating to safety nets at both the
provincial and federal level.
The main thrust
of the G & O Safety Net Working Group continues to be the implementation
of the Risk Management Program (RMP) for the 2006 crop and additional support
from governments to offset the losses for the 2005 crop.
Since the Annual Meeting in March, the group has:
| * | Elected a chair and chairs for the Federal Lobby and Provincial Lobby Committees |
| * | Continued to meet with MPPs |
| * | Participated in a rally with thousand of producers on Parliament Hill in April and supported a Canada Day rally also at Parliament Hill |
| * | Met with the Ontario Liberal Rural Caucus |
| * | Met with senior OMAFRA bureaucrats several times |
| * | Established a Federal Lobby Committee which is arranging meetings with MPs |
| * | Initiated discussions with G & O farm leaders across the country |
| * | Had some politicians, including Premier McQuinty, request meetings with G & O representatives |
| * | Hired a provincial lobbyist organization |
| * | Hired a federal lobbyist organization |
| * | Conducted industry stakeholder focus groups |
| * | Struck a technical committee to explore opportunities for moving ahead with OMAFRA |
| * | Established an RMP Review Committee to assess the RMP |
| * | Continued to push the Farmers Feed Cities! campaign |
| * | Been visible at more community events. A large presence is planned for the Outdoor Farm Show, International Plowing Match and Pioneer Days. |
| * | Run a series of radio ads |
| * | Developed more ads to run in the Ontario Farmer and other commodity publications |
| * | Received continued support from industry |
| * | Has trademarked the Farmers Feed Cities! logo |
The Farmers Feed
Cities! campaign has been successful in bringing much needed attention to the
farm income crisis. We are making progress but the lobby efforts must continue.
Canadian
Farm Families Options Program
At the end of July, Chuck Strahl announced a new program to help lower income
farm families who are under significant financial stress. The Canadian Farm
Families Options Program is designed to provide shortterm income support to
eligible applicants, who will receive a payment that will bring them to a maximum
income of $25,000 for families and $15,000 for individuals if they have a commercial
farm. The program will also help these families explore options that will help
raise their income in the future, through business planning and skills development
programs.
The Options program
is a two-year pilot program that will be backed with a federal commitment of
$550 million. Interested parties can receive application forms from the Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada website. The program deadline is October 31, 2006. Payments
are expected to flow some time this fall.
CAIS
Fee Option Notices
CAIS Fee Option Notices are being sent out to producers. Some producers who
have received them have indicated that they have until the end of this month
(September 30th) to make any changes to their coverage levels. Producers are
encouraged to know their deadlines for these changes.
Province
Pledges $261 Million to Assist Alberta Agriculture Producers
Just a few weeks ago, Alberta’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Development announced that they recognize their farmers, specifically those
in the grains and oilseeds sector, are having difficulties meeting cash flow
requirements. Therefore, there will be an immediate payment totaling $261 million
to assist those producers whose operations have been impacted by rising input
costs and falling commodity prices.
As part of a disaster declaration issued by the province, funds will be used as additional support under the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) Program. Looking at one’s 2004 claim year, reference margins will be increased by 25 percent of the fuel and fertilizer costs, and there will be a general reference margin increase of 15 percent. The 2004 CAIS program year was selected as a basis for compensating producers because it represents the most recent year with complete participant information and will therefore allow for quicker processing with no application submission requirement.
Update
on 2004 General Top-up (GOPP and OGOP)
At a recent Ontario Agricultural Commodity Council Meeting, Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs staff provided agriculture sector staff
with a status update on both the Federal Grains and Oilseeds Payment Program
(GOPP) and Provincial Ontario Grains and Oilseeds Payment (OGOP).
GOPP - As of early
September, roughly 22,000 producers received a total of just under $90 million.
Nationally, roughly $736 million of the $755 million committed has been distributed.
Speculation at this point suggests that there will be a little more money to
come to Ontario; however, it appears that most of it has already been distributed.
OGOP – As
of early September, just over 20,000 participants received a total of $80 million.
Since $80 million was the budgeted amount to be spent, there will not be any
second payments.
CASH
ADVANCE PROGRAMS
Enhanced Spring Credit Advance Program (ESCAP)
OCPA, in partnership with the Ontario Soybean Growers and Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada, is offering the Enhanced Spring Credit Advance Program (ESCAP) for corn
and soybeans. ESCAP increased the level of interest-free
advances from $50,000 to $100,000 and provided an extended repayment date of
September 30, 2007. The rates for the fall portion of ESCAP will be as follows:
Corn: $1.65/bu or $65.00/tonne
Soybeans: $3.00/bu or $110.00/tonne
Applications will
be available on the OCPA or OSG websites or can be requested by calling the
OCPA office.
Spring
Credit Advance Program (SCAP)
Producers with advances under the Spring Credit Advance Program (SCAP) have
the opportunity to roll their advances into the ESCAP program to take advantage
of the extended repayment deadline of September 30, 2007 with no additional
administration fee. The repayment deadline for SCAP advances is December 15,
2006.
Advance
Payments Program (APP)
OCPA has applied to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to administer the fall
Advance Payment Program (APP) for corn at the same rate as the fall ESCAP rate
of $65.00/tonne. The interestfree level will be $50,000 with the maximum level
of $250,000. This will likely be the last year for the APP, SCAP and ESCAP as
the federal government has proposed to launch a new cash advance program in
the spring of 2007. This new program will offer up to 18 months of
financing, cover more crops and include livestock. The program will offer producers
a maximum of $400,000 in
financing with the first $100,000 being offered interest free.
Environment, Technology and Research Committee
Agricultural
Policy Framework (APF) Research Funding Update
It was a year and a half ago, at the first joint corn/soybean/wheat annual general
meeting in March, that I presented the details of this Research and Development
initiative to be funded via ‘wedge dollars’ (for those of you who
can’t
remember that far back, these were transition dollars designed to move agriculture
into the new world of the APF). The new program is referred to as the CORD 4
(Canada-Ontario Research and Development) program and will allocate
approximately $4.5 million to the Field Crop Sector.
A
committee called the Ontario Field Crops Research Coalition (OFCRC), which includes
12 commodity groups (corn, soybeans, wheat, small grains, forages, white and
coloured beans, canola, seed corn, sugar beets, Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement
Association and Innovative Farmers of Ontario), is charged with reviewing research
project proposals to be funded by the CORD 4 program. The funding levels for
each commodity are based on farm gate receipts, with accommodation made to provide
the smallest commodities with a minimum level of funding such that meaningful
projects can be conducted. This placed OCPA’s allocation at just over $1.1
million. Once the research
projects are approved by OFCRC, they are forwarded by the secretariat to the
Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC) for final approval.
The last update provided to the membership, which occurred at the last semiannual meeting one year ago, outlined 6 projects that had received the OFCRC and AAC approvals to move forward. Since than, another 8 projects have received the necessary approvals and are proceeding. These projects are listed below:
|
Approved
CORD 4 Projects
|
|||
| Project Title |
Project
Duration
|
||
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
| Weed Control
Decision Making Tools for Profit Maximization in Corn (M. Cowbrough, OMAFRA, Guelph) |
-
|
$38,125
|
$38,125
|
| Weed Management
in Corn (Dr. P. Sikkema, Ridgetown Campus, University of Guelph) |
-
|
$60,000
|
$60,000
|
| Management
of Corn Rootworm in Ontario (Dr. A. Schaafsma, Ridgetown Campus, University of Guelph) |
$20,000
|
$20,000
|
-
|
| Delivering
Value-Added Technology in Corn Directly to the Ontario Corn Farmer (Dr. E. Lee, Dept. of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph) |
-
|
$65,000
|
$65,000
|
| Development
of an In Vitro Mutagenesis/Selection System for Future Germplasm Development (Dr. L. Kott, Dept. of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph) |
-
|
$46,250
|
$46,250
|
| Molecular
Approaches Toward Improving Fusarium Resistance in Corn (Dr. K. P. Pauls, Dept. of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph) |
-
|
$96,000
|
$96,000
|
| Expanding
Sustainable Nitrogen Fertilizer Use by Promoting and Refining New Nitrogen
Recommendations for Corn (G. Stewart, OMAFRA and G. Brown, Director Business Development, Agricorp, Guelph) |
-
|
$63,620
|
$63,620
|
| Improving
Corn Hybrid Management in Ontario (G. Stewart, OMAFRA, Guelph) |
-
|
$25,000
|
$25,000
|
One
other thing that should be pointed out – the dollar amounts indicated above
only includes OCPA contributions to the project. In many cases, there are additional
funds from other associations and industry that support these projects.
If any members wish to gain more detail around these projects or any other research related material, feel free to contact your local or regional OCPA Director, or the OCPA office in Guelph. You can also visit our website at www.ontariocorn.org to view our most recent call for proposals.
CORD
4 Program Interruption
On May 19, 2006, OCPA was notified that a claim submitted to trigger payments
for projects funded under the CORD 4 program could not be processed. The problem
arose from an issue with the contribution and implementation agreements
between
the Federal and Provincial governments, and a government year end of March 31,
2006. This impacted all newly approved projects as well as interim/final payment
requests that occurred post April 1, 2006.
This
was an issue because what it really meant was that if payments to research projects
became due, commodity organizations would be expected to cash flow the project
until the Federal money became available. In some cases, this could add up to
significant dollar amounts. This delay in payment was expected to take up to
two months to resolve.
In
the end, the Agriculture Adaptation Council worked with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to resolve
the issue. The payments on CORD 4 projects resumed the second week of July.
Agriculture
Adaptation Council Field Crop Consultation
The Agriculture Adaptation Council (AAC) held a consultation with the Field
Crop sector in early June. The main topic for the consultation was an old defunct
Federal program called the CARD Fund. For clarification, AAC currently delivers
a program named CanAdvance. It is a 5 year $255 million program funded Federally
from a fund called ACAAF (Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Program).
The predecessor to ACAAF was the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development (CARD)
program which was used to fund the AAC’s CanAdapt program. As a result
of prudent stewardship of resources, there is a balance of $6 million left to
target to projects. AAC was consulting the Field Crop sector for feedback on
how to best target this funding. OCPA stayed true to its messaging as always
– target the funds to research that will accrue back to the grassroots
membership. OCPA also floated ideas such as a capital venture fund for agriculture
and a potential to fund a physical staffing resource between the Field Crop
sector groups that would perform work in specific areas where there was a deficiency.
Grain Trade & Marketing Development Policy Committee
Ethanol
Ontario:
The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Leona Dombrowski, announced,
June 15, 2006, the investment of $32 million dollars by the Ontario government
in the construction of three new ethanol plants.
The
funding for the construction of three plants in Aylmer, Hensall and Cornwall
is from the Ontario Ethanol Growth Fund in the form of capital grants. In addition,
the three plants as well as facilities in Chatham and Collingwood will receive
operating grants worth up to $60 million annually to help manage fluctuating
market conditions.
The
following plants have been approved to receive capital and/or operating grants
from the Ontario Ethanol Growth Fund as follows:
•
Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative (IGPC), Aylmer, 145 million litre facility
• Blackstone Energy Services Inc., Collingwood, 50 million litre facility
• Seaway Grain Processors Inc., Cornwall, 65 million litre facility
• Commercial Alcohols Inc., Chatham, 100 million litre facility and Hensall,
190 million litre facility
Suncor
held a grand opening for its new 200 million litre ethanol plant in Sarnia on
August 31, 2006. The province and Suncor have signed an Ethanol Manufacturer’s
Agreement which will provide the Suncor plant $36 million over the next three
years.
The
OCPA supports ethanol produced in Ontario using corn grown in Ontario. To maximize
benefit to rural Ontario
and Ontario’s corn producers, which Premier McGuinty promised in 2003,
the government assistance for ethanol production
should be based on using Ontario-grown corn. Ethanol produced from imported
subsidized U.S. corn will not economically benefit Ontario’s corn producers
and will attract the same taxpayer funded assistance as ethanol produced from
Ontariogrown corn.
Canada:
Federally, Minister of Agriculture, Chuck Strahl held a roundtable discussion,
June 19, 2006, on the BioFuels Industry in Canada. The federal government is
seeking input from the stakeholders on how to most effectively engage the agricultural
sector in the development of the federal government’s biofuels strategy
and ensure that primary producers benefit.
Some interesting points
made in the Areas of Consensus and Decision section of the BioFuels Roundtable
Event Report include:
• Provide incentives to farmers to encourage ownership
• Support the use of Canadian feedstock in Canadian biofuels plants
• Need to harmonize policies and regulatory environments with the U.S.
• Governments must play a significant role in research and development
• Need to establish and enforce quality standards for biofuels in Canada
The June 19 Roundtable Discussion is only a part of the consultation process as the federal government meets with stakeholders across Canada. One of the objectives of the meeting was to discuss how to ensure that primary producers benefit. Taxpayer assistance should be based on the use of Canadian-grown feedstocks in Canadian biofuels plants.
Since both levels of government
have made commitments to a domestic biofuels industry, OCPA has seen a significant
increase in the number of proposals for the building of ethanol plants across
Ontario.
Trade
Initiatives Update
The following report, provided by Bill Hearn, McMillan Binch Mendelsohn, outlines
the status of the various proceedings that have arisen as a result of Canadian
Corn Producers (CCP) anti-dumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) case against imports
of U.S. grain corn. CCP or its opponents have challenged the result from every
phase of the AD/CVD case. As a
result, there are four separate proceedings dealing with various parts of the
AD/CVD case.
In order to focus resources on the aspects of the case most pertinent to CCP, we have recommended that CCP consent to stay certain proceedings brought by its opponents. This allows all parties to concentrate on the all-important judicial review (JR) of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal’s (CITT) no-injury decision. Each of the proceedings and their status are described here:
| 1. |
JR of the Canada Border
Services Agency (CBSA) preliminary determination that U.S. imports of
grain corn are dumped and subsidized in the Federal Court by Casco, Maple
Leaf and Commercial Alcohols Casco, Maple Leaf and Commercial Alcohols
all launched actions in the Federal Court arguing among other things that
CBSA had exceeded its jurisdiction when it conducted its preliminary investigation
and made an error in law with respect to its decision to grant CCP standing.
The court file numbers of the three proceedings before the Federal Court
(Trial Division) are: T-164-06 (Casco); T-165-06 (Commercial Alcohols);
and T-160-06 (Maple Leaf). |
|
We have received,
on consent, orders for all three of these proceedings staying them until
the later of: |
|
| 2. | Request
for consultation at the WTO by the American Government with respect to the
Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) preliminary injury finding that U.S. grain corn is causing injury to Canadian producers. |
| The
United States Government has requested consultations at the WTO with Canada
arguing that the CITT’s preliminary injury finding does not comply with Canada’s obligations under the Anti-dumping and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures agreement. This is proceeding DS338. The Canadian and American governments, not the CCP or it opponents, control the outcome of this proceeding. The request for consultations occurred on March 17, 2006. According to the WTO website the complaint is still active. If CCP is successful in having the CITT noinjury decision reversed and duties put in place, it is likely that the U.S. government will move the WTO challenge forward. |
|
| 3. | NAFTA bi-national
panel review of the CBSA’s final determination that U.S. grain corn
are dumped and subsidized. |
|
Casco, Commercial
Alcohols and Maple Leaf Foods all requested a NAFTA bi-national panel
review of CBSA’s final determination. Opponents have alleged that
the CBSA made a number of errors in its final determination including
its methodology for calculating the dumping margins and finding that the
subsidy programs met the legal requirement for specificity. This is proceeding
CDA-USA- 2006-1904-01. |
|
| All parties
agreed to a stay of the NAFTA binational panel review and the NAFTA secretariat
has confirmed that the proceedings are stayed effective August 1, 2006.
The panel is stayed until: • The final deposition of the JR of the CITT’s noinjury determination; OR • One of the complainants providing 30 days notice of its intent to proceed. |
|
| Note that
the conditions of the stay allow CCP’s opponents to reactivate the
panel on 30 days notice for any reason. If this happens before the JR of
the CITT’s no-injury decision is complete, we would likely recommend
that CCP bring a motion, which would be contested by CCP’s opponents,
to have the panel stayed again. |
|
| 4. | JR of the CITT’s noinjury finding in the Federal Court of Appeal by the CCP On June 7, 2006 Canadian Corn Producers filed an action to commence judicial review of the CITT’s noinjury decision. The court file is A-267-06. Markus Koehnen, Jonathan Hood and Bill Hearn are currently working on the Factum which contains CCP’s legal argument. The Factum is due at the beginning of November. After the Factum is filed, opponents must file their responding Factum by November 29th. Provided there are no motions or challenges from CCP’s opponents, we will be in a position to requisition a hearing date for the hearing by the beginning of December. When the hearing is held will be dependent upon how busy the court is. |