“How do you get this money? Nobody has seen it.”
–Ian Paton
The BC Fruit Growers Association says the premier committed to develop a one-time climate-change response fund, to give immediate financial help to farmers whose crops were destroyed by last year’s cold snap and the previous year’s drought.
“The frustration is massive,” said Deep Brar, association vice-president.
“I’m not really sure how to deal with all the people I have to deal with every single day who were told by the premier in August this was coming, we were going to do this for you guys, and we are getting into February right now.”
“The frustration is massive.”
Deep Brar
The commitment to the fund was part of a government aid package that included a $15 million boost to Agristability, $5 million for climate resiliency, and money to help replant lost crops.
“I’m very aware that that commitment was made,” said Agriculture Minister Lana Popham. “I’m working on what that will look like for them.”
‘Farmers need support now’
Popham inherited the promise from previous agriculture minister Pam Alexis, who lost her seat in the October election. Alexis was widely-criticized for being slow to respond to the weather-related crises that hit the agriculture sector. Popham met with the fruit growers association last week.
“They made it really clear they are depending on some kind of further support and I completely get that,” said Popham. “So I’m looking at it.”
Farmers say that while they welcome future aid on crop replacement and insurance, they need immediate financial assistance to keep the lights on at their farms, pay staff and keep creditors from foreclosing on assets after a brutal year of crop losses.
“They need us to react to the realities that they’re facing.”
David Eby
Eby expressed support for that approach during the announcement last August in Penticton.
“Farmers need support now,” Eby said at the time.
“They need us to react to the realities that they’re facing. They need us to provide the support so that they’re able to make the payments that the obligations that they have, whether it’s a mortgage payment, or whether it’s paying labour, or whatever it is.”
Bureaucracy delays access to funds
Deep said he took Eby at his word, but has been unimpressed since.
“We were told we were getting hope for growers and then you get stuck in this bureaucracy and the election and stuck in everything,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just like you are banging your head against the wall over and over.”
Opposition Conservative agriculture critic Ian Paton said he hears constant frustration from farmers about an inability to access the funding that government keeps announcing.
“The ministry of agriculture keeps talking about all these programs, $20 million here and $70 million there and you can talk to every farmer in the province and they are going, how do you get this money? Nobody has seen it. That’s the frustration,” said Paton.
Popham said any additional aid is now part of the budget process, set to be tabled in the legislature March 4.