Support for Farmers

 Ontario government is increasing annual funding for its Risk Management Program (RMP) from $150 million to $250 million to enhance support for farmers and the province’s $51 billion agri-food sector. The $100 million increase will help farmers respond to market challenges while boosting their long-term business confidence and competitiveness.

 “We’ve heard from our local farming community that financial support is needed to address escalating risks to farm operations,” said MPP Vic Fedeli. “Today’s $100 million increase to the Risk Management Program will strengthen our agri-food sectors resilience during market instability.”

 The $100 million increase will be phased in over a three-year period, starting with a $30 million increase for the 2025 program year, leading to an annual total of $250 million by the 2027 program year. Producer premiums will remain at 35 per cent of government funding, and the current phase-in will continue.

 This investment builds on the $50 million annual increase to RMP in 2020 to $150 million, and past reforms which allowed unused program funds to be rolled over to future year claims, allowing the program to be most responsive in times of greatest need. This also builds on the 2023 changes to the compensation rates for AgriStability which were increased from 70 per cent to 80 per cent, a change that Ontario led the fight on at the federal level to better serve farms facing significant margin declines due to production losses as part of the national suite of Business Risk Management programming.

 RMP supports over 383,000 jobs and $24 billion throughout Ontario’s agri-food supply chain across 8,500 farms which produce cattle, hogs, sheep, veal, grains and oilseeds, as well as edible horticulture through the Self-Directed Risk Management stream.