Manitoba, Ottawa pledge mental health funding for farmers

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This article was published 17/01/2024 (655 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — NDP Leader Wab Kinew attended his first Manitoba Ag Days as the province’s premier, bearing gifts, announcing funds for mental health supports for farmers and reduced AgriInsurance premiums for 2024.

On Tuesday, Kinew said his government and Ottawa are contributing $450,000 over the next three years to the Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program through the Sustainable Agricultural Partnership.

He said many of the challenges faced by Manitobans in recent years have been borne by the agricultural industry.

“All of us have dealt with mental health challenges, all of us have dealt with the challenge of inflation,” the NDP premier said. “But you add to that some of the challenges around flooding, some years drought and other years broader market conditions, trade disputes… there is a toll that is borne by folks who are hard at work growing the economy and creating economic opportunity.”

The Manitoba Farmer Wellness Program, launched in 2022, offers short-term counselling via mental-health professionals with a background in agriculture.

The program’s website states it offers six counselling sessions to participants at no cost.

“Farmers face unique stressors and challenges, but they don’t complain, and they always get the job done,” federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in a media release

“If they’re struggling with their mental health, we need to be there for them.”

Kinew had no news on his government’s stated goal of reopening Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp. offices closed in rural Manitoba by the previous Tory government, but said announcements would be coming in the future.

During the dignitaries’ remarks, Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn announced AgriInsurance premiums for producers would be an average $16.21 per acre in 2024 for annual crops, down from $19.21 per acre in 2023.

In total, the program is expected to provide Manitoba farmers with about $5 billion in coverage over 9.55 million acres of crops.

Kostyshyn also restated recent rent reductions announced for farmers leasing agricultural Crown lands and committed to continue to modernize the program that manages them.

Speaking to media at the conference, Opposition agriculture critic Jeff Bereza (Portage la Prairie) said changes to Crown lands were announced in his government’s final budget before last year’s election and the NDP is just rehashing them.

“Mental health is a big issue that I think we all struggle with,” Bereza said.

“And I think one of the things that we struggle with right now, as far as the producers that I’ve met with here… is getting back to things that are out of their control, like the carbon tax.”

— Brandon Sun