Farmers in Saskatchewan are calling Ottawa’s federal farm aid program a good first step but more is needed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has outlined a 252 million dollar aid package to help producers who can’t sell their animals and a fund to buy food that would otherwise spoil and send it to food banks.
APAS president Todd Lewis is concerned about the adequacy of the support, pointing to a request of 2.6 billion dollars in farm aid from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
Lewis says he is encouraged by a promise from the PM that there’s more farm aid to come.
He continues to call for improvements to farm business risk programs.
The chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, Daryl Fransoo, says the support is inadequate.
He says the federal government is disregarding the importance of food security during the covid-19 outbreak.
