Now that the new federal-provincial Agriculture Income Disaster Assistance (ADIA) program has been formally signed, eligible producers will be receiving full payment of funds under the program. Up until now, producers had been receiving 50 percent of the funds for which they were eligible under a combination of AIDA and the provincial Agricultural Disaster Insurance Program (ADIP.)
The new agreement was signed formally by Agriculture and Forestry Minister Eric Hammill last week on behalf of the provincial government. "Because Prince Edward Island already had a disaster insurance program in place, we were prepared to process applications immediately, and ensure that eligible producers received 50 percent of the funds to which they were entitled until the new federal-provincial program was approved formally," said Mr. Hammill. "Now those producers will receive the remainder of their payments."
Mr. Hammill said that applications which are being processed for the first time will receive payments of 100 percent.
As of the end of May, 85 applications had been approved for a total of close to $2.4 million.
The AIDA program was announced following a meeting in late February in Victoria of federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture. Under the agreement, Prince Edward Island producers are eligible for payments of up to $12 million over the next two years, cost shared on a 60/40 basis from the federal and provincial governments. The program is administered in this province by the Prince Edward Island Agricultural Insurance Corporation.