TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2011
Delta civic councillor and farmer Ian Paton says he’s not encouraged aid money for farmers will come ❚PHOTO/Chung Chow sooner rather than later based on a conversation with the minister of agriculture.
❚FARMING
A TOUGH GROW IN DELTA
Hit by heavy rainfall, growers are still anxiously awaiting emergency provincial aid and AgriRecovery Program help Sandor GYARMATI Now Contributor
DELTA – Farmers hurt by flooding have a few hurdles to clear before they’ll see a dime of emergency provincial aid. Fraser Valley farmers experienced massive crop losses in the fall due to torrential rainfall that began in early September. Longtime farmer Peter Guichon mused that it was likely the worst period of rain experienced locally in 80 years, rotting potatoes and other crops and bogging down equipment. In addition to crop insurance farmers take out, local growers were also hoping to use the provincial AgriStability Program. Farmers also wanted the province to initiate a joint federal/provincial AgriRecovery Program as well. However, until now all farmers had to rely on to pay bills and somehow get by is whatever crop insurance they had, said civic
councillor and Ladner farmer Ian Paton, also a director of the Delta Farmers’ Institute. “I’ve been through this myself and suppliers are usually pretty good about saying, ‘I know things have been tough, I know you owe us a bunch of money, but you have to get things wrapped up by Christmas,’” Paton said. He added farmers often face large expenses. “It may not be uncommon to have a fertilizer bill from a fertilizer company for $75,000 or $100,000 that has to be cleaned up by Christmas. “You may owe $50,000 to your fuel company for diesel, all these different things.” Paton said farmers are likely starting their new year with a pile of unpaid bills. “It’s going to be a tough go. Then guys have to have money to buy seed for the upcoming year,” he said. The federal/provincial recovery program will likely be even further
down the road, explained Paton, because farmers will be required to show all the payments they received from crop insurance, the provincial recovery program as well as prove their losses. Paton and members of the DFI recently met with Ben Stewart, appointed minister of agriculture in October, who visited in Delta. Based on that conversation, Paton said he wasn’t encouraged aid money for farmers will come sooner rather than later. The massive crop losses in Delta have also impacted programs undertaken by the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust. According to a recent newsletter by the trust, the rains saturated the soil and overwhelmed drainage systems, turning the farm fields of Delta into “a slurry of silt, clay and water.” By the end of October, over 1,800 acres of potatoes were left in the field, along with bean, silage corn, grain and cole crops, notes the trust.
❚RED NOSE
Record number of safe rides home SURREY – Tougher drinking Marisa BABIC Staff Reporter driving laws kept Operation Red Nose volunteers busy. Jordan Welch, an organizer with the Langley-Surrey chapter of Operation Red Nose, says the program broke a record for the number of rides given to local holiday merrymakers over the nine-day campaign that was capped off on New Year’s Eve. Welch said volunteer drivers brought 1,086 partiers safely home. “The demand was definitely up this year,” said Welch, who has been a volunteer driver with the program for seven years. “Everybody was wanting to be far more careful this year – not willing to take chances.” Welch attributes the higher demand for rides to B.C.’s strict anti-drinking driving laws that were introduced last year, which call for heavy fines and driving bans for blowing over the limit.
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❚PHOTO/Chung Chow
Operation Red Nose had a record-breaking year.