AGRICULTURE

Farm Assistance Programs

The Agriculture Group at VMSW keeps close tabs on several government programs that are important to our farm clients.

CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) Program

The application deadline for the CAIS program has been extended to June 30, 2004. This was welcome news to us. We are busy preparing CAIS applications for our clients under the rules as they have been communicated.

Since our last Newsletter there have been a couple of program changes:

(a) The maximum payment under CAIS has been increased from $975,000 to $3,000,000.

(b) Negative production margins, which initially were not going to be covered under the program, will now be eligible for up to 60% funding for the negative portion. Farms experiencing a negative production margin will not have to withdraw any or their own funds for the coverage of the negative margin. All of this portion of the payment will be funded by the CAIS program.

Please remember to open a CAIS program account at a participating financial institution by June 30, 2004 and do ALL of the following.

(1) Deposit between the minimum of 14% to 26% of your reference margin (1/3 of deposit requirement for 2003); or

(2) Roll up to 52% of your reference margin of your NISA Fund 1; and

(3) File your program forms (Schedule 1 Production Summary and Schedule 2  Inventory, A/R and A/P).

Program forms (T1163) must be filed by June 15 for individuals and June 30 for corporations.

This will ensure you have coverage for both the 2003 and 2004 programs.  You will need to file a Schedule 2 for 2004 by March 2005 and your T1163 by June 2005.

Spring Credit Advance Program (SCAP)

This short term financing program provides interest free loans of up to $50,000 for Ontario farmers to assist in the purchasing of crop inputs for planting.  The full amount of the loan must be repaid by December 15, 2004 by direct payment, or by transferring funds from a Fall Credit Advance on crops in storage.

The program covers corn, soybeans, wheat, tobacco, vegetables, and more.  To be eligible your crops must be insured through Agricrop.  ACC is again the official administrator of this program.

If you need assistance or an application, please contact our office, or contact a dedicated SCAP phone line at (888) 278-8807.

Transitional Assistance to Tobacco Producers

The early information on this program indicates the federal government plans to provide transitional opportunities to tobacco producers in Ontario and Quebec. 

The plan has three elements:

• Assistance to producers for whom growing tobacco is no longer viable

• Skill and development tools to help take advantage of other opportunities

• Identification of changing trends in international tobacco markets

The federal government promises that more details will be available soon.

Land Transfer Tax Exemption for Family Farms

The Ontario government recently announced an exemption from Land Transfer Tax on the transfer or sale of farm land between members of the same family.

General

• Ordinarily, a transfer of farmed land is subject to Land Transfer Tax, which can range from 0.5% to 2%, depending on the value of the property.

With this new legislation Land Transfer Tax exemptions apply when:

• There is a transfer of farm land used in a farming business to a family farm corporation, as long as the corporation continues to farm the land, and the corporation shareholders are related and run the farm.

• The transfer of farm land is between related individuals and it continues to be farmed (effective March 28, 2003).

• Eligible family members include: spouse, child, mother, father, brother or sister and spouse/descendants, cousins, and descendants.

• Grandparents, certain spouse's relatives and a transferor's same-sex spouse are also eligible family members.  This is consistent with the current exemption for transfers into a family farm corporation.

Qualifying for Exemption

The person or people who buy/receive the transferred land must be related to the transferor and either they or their relatives must continue to farm the land.

95 per cent of the assets of the family farm corporation must be farming assets.

This measure will help reduce the costs of passing on the farming tradition to future generations and build a stronger, more prosperous rural economy.

Transitional Industry Support Program (TISP)

(1) Cattle and other ruminants

Producers of cattle and other ruminants are eligible to receive a flat rate payment based on their herd inventories as of December 23, 2003.   Producers with cattle will receive a payment of up to $80 per bovine animal, including dairy heifers, but excluding mature bulls and cows (cows that have calved and intact bulls older than one year.

For producers of other ruminants, payments per animal will be up to the following amounts:

            Sheep  $16

            Goats  $16

            Bison  $80

            Elk  $40

            Deer  $20

For forms and other information www.agr.gc.ca/tisp/

Application deadline is July 31, 2004

(2) General transition payments

General transition payments are based on the same formula used for previous bridging payments from the federal government and will be available to eligible producers.

• Payments will be based on a producer's five-year average (1998-2002) of eligible net sales

• Producers who have participated in the NISA program, or who had applied for the previous 2002/2003 federal transition funding will automatically receive payments

Clean Water Project (CWP)

The Clean Water Project (CWP) is a rural water quality initiative that provides technical assistance and financial incentives to improve and protect water quality on your farm.

Rural landowners in the counties of Oxford, Middlesex, and Perth, the cities of London and Stratford, and the town of St. Marys are eligible to apply for the project through their local Conservation Authority. All projects require the completion of an Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) or CWP Worksheet for Septic Systems and Wells.

Conservation Authorities may offer increased grant rates and/or maximum grants for specific projects.

How to Apply

To apply for project funding, download and print the appropriate application forms from:  http://www.thamesriver.org/CleanWaterProject/CWP.htm

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Greg Bruce or Brent Mikitish in our Woodstock office at (519) 539-6109 or toll free at 1-877-539-6109

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