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Ontario increasing Risk Management Program funding

The 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, according to a press release from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness. The $100 million increase will support farmers in responding to market challenges while boosting their long-term business confidence and competitiveness.

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 of this will continue.

“This investment will not only continue to support hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in economic activity, it will also help ensure the continued growth of Ontario’s thriving agri-food sector for generations,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, minister of finance, in the release.

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 more than 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.