Although Rainy River District has received more rainfall so far this season than in May and June of last year, area farmers still are seeking compensation for their struggle with drought conditions in 2006.
“We’re certainly still working on it,” stressed Ken McKinnon, president of the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association.
“It’s been indicated there are funds available for drought assistance, so why not do the decent thing—be fair to the people and compensate them,” he remarked.
McKinnon feels the government has been unfair with drought compensation to farmers in Rainy River District.
“In [British Columbia], the federal and provincial governments got together and there was a payout for drought assistance for the farmers,” he noted. “And I think our drought situation here last year was comparable to that region.”
He said while the outcome was good for the farmers in B.C., here in Ontario “our minister basically didn’t see fit to get together with the federal government, work out an agreement, and compensate the farmers.”
McKinnon wondered why would they would compensate one region of the country and not another.
“If we’re not entitled to it, I wish they would just come to the table and say so,” he noted.
“This is a year later. It’s ridiculous to wait this long and let the farmers struggle through this situation,” McKinnon added. “This should have been resolved last fall at the latest.”
Although local farmers haven’t received any funds to help recover from last season, they are lucky the drought didn’t continue this year to make matters even worse.
“This year we are very fortunate,” McKinnon noted. “I had anticipated as a result of the drought situation last year, it might take two or three years for things to return to normal.
“But we basically had an early spring, no late frost. We’ve had some good rains and adequate heat units,” he added. “So we’re actually in good shape this year.”
“The recent rain has kind of brought us back to where we were [before the drought],” agreed Trish Neilson president of the Rainy River Federation of Agriculture.
“In my own opinion, it relieved the drought,” she noted. “I was worried it would just get progressively drier over the summer, but I would say our water levels have recovered.”
Yet Neilson said the financial effects of the drought are still with local farmers.
“And it still doesn’t make us feel any better about the way we’ve been treated in 2006,” McKinnon remarked, stressing he feels different regions of the country should be treated the same.
A small group of farmers have been working with Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Ken Boshcoff’s office to get them to listen.
“Ken has done excellent job—he’s put a lot of energy into it,” McKinnon said.
The group plans to meet amongst themselves in the next few days to determine the extent of the damage and what their next steps will be.
“We don’t know how much of the problem has been resolved by the weather, so they will meet internally and advise me how they’d like to proceed,” Boshcoff said after meeting with the farmers back on June 30.
He noted they have not heard of any financial commitments from the federal or provincial ministries of agriculture, but added $7.5 million was given to B.C. to help with the drought situation there.
“So there is a precedence,” Boshcoff said. “Before we can ask for [assistance], we have to have a dollar amount as to how much damage was suffered.”
He said the government agrees residents of Rainy River District have struggled through 15 months in verifiable drought conditions.
“There have been some big impacts and we have to know what we can do and what can be done, so that’s why we’ve been pressing them,” Boshcoff added.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
