The federal and provincial governments finally all agreed on a proposal to reform AgriStability during a meeting this week.
The reference margin is now gone, support increases from 70 to 80 per cent of margins and the federal government is putting up $90 million, much less than its November offer of $170 million.
The Prairie provinces refused to sign on to the margin increase to 80 per cent.
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau extended the deadline for farmers to sign on June 30.
“We know AgriStability negotiations are not easy, but removing the reference margin limit does very little for pork producers,” said chair Rick Bergmann, chairman of the Canadian Pork Council.
“We expected that, in these difficult times, the prairie provincial ministers would have considered the challenges faced by pork producers.”
