Legislative Report
(17 April 2013)

Growth Plan For Agriculture

Last week, our government took a major step supporting the ambitious Growth Plan goals pertaining to agriculture. Under Growing Forward 2, the provincial and federal governments are partnering to provide $388 million in funding over the next five years for programming for farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses and exporters. This programming was created in consultation with agricultural producers, and includes:

• $170 million in agriculture innovation, research and technology transfer;
• $65 million in rural water infrastructure;
• $60 million in environment, food safety, plant and animal health;
• $32 million for value-added business development as well as trade and market development;
• $25 million in farm business management;
• $4 million to support the industry in agriculture awareness initiatives;
• Business risk management programming such as Crop Insurance, AgriStability, AgriInvest and AgriRecovery.

Growing Forward 2 includes a new Agricultural Awareness Initiative. This program provides funding to producers, commodity organizations, agribusiness and agencies to develop and implement educational activities about how important the agriculture industry is in Saskatchewan and Canada.

Agriculture remains one of the top drivers of the Saskatchewan economy. This new five-year agreement will give our province’s hard-working agricultural producers and businesses the tools they need to ensure that continues. This programming will also help our government meet its Growth Plan goals of increasing exports of agricultural and food products from $10 billion a year to $15 billion by 2020 and increasing crop production by 10-million tonnes over the next seven years.

You can also see the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth in action on the University of Regina campus. Our government is providing $10 million to build new housing for 605 post-secondary students at the University of Regina. This financial commitment moves us closer towards our goal of 12,600 new housing units across the province by 2016. This new residence will house a day care and be located near the Campion and Luther Colleges. This facility will provide safe housing for those pursuing a post-secondary education and in turn open up housing spaces in the Regina market. The expected completion date is September 2015.

Our government is continuing to assist individuals and communities with preparations for the spring melt. The Water Security Agency and the Ministry of Government Relations continue to hold a series of well attended informational meetings across the province, providing people an opportunity to gather information and advice on flood mitigation and programs available. The Emergency Management and Fire Safety already has more than a million sandbags, 68,000 feet of flood barrier and more than 80 pumps ready to go. This equipment will be distributed to municipalities and First Nations across southern Saskatchewan. Many lessons have been learned since 2011 and it is great to see so many communities being pro active and taking precautions. For more information about flood preparedness go to www.gov.sk.ca/flood or www.wsask.ca.

 

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