Today, the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and the Honourable Bloyce Thompson, Provincial Minister of Agriculture, announced additional support for Prince Edward Island producers in the fruit tree sector that were extraordinarily impacted by Hurricane Fiona.
The Canada - Prince Edward Island Fiona Fruit Tree Recovery Initiative, under AgriRecovery, will provide eligible fruit tree growers with over $1.7 million in federal/provincial cost-shared funding to support extraordinary costs such as the replacement and restoration of trellis infrastructure, labour costs resulting from additional tasks such as mulching ground fruit and clearing trees, and the replacement and straightening of damaged trees.
AgriRecovery is part of the business risk management (BRM) suite under the recently announced Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP). AgriRecovery provides a framework and process that enables federal/provincial/territorial governments to evaluate the impacts of natural disasters on agricultural producers and provide additional support for extraordinary costs when needed.
The AgriRecovery framework has a set of assessment criteria for governments to determine whether or not financial relief is needed beyond existing BRM programming. If the criteria for disaster relief are met, an AgriRecovery initiative is developed to provide financial relief to producers. AgriRecovery initiatives are cost-shared on a 60:40 basis between the federal government and participating provinces or territories, as outlined under the Sustainable CAP.
