Westlock County will not declare a state of agricultural disaster following the Alberta government’s province-wide agricultural disaster declaration late last month.
Westlock County reeve Don Savage said last Wednesday that council decided not go through with the declaration based on recommendations from the county’s Agricultural Services department.
Manager of Agricultural Services Jacolyn Tigert, who toured the county over the last few weeks, said 10 per cent or less of crops remained standing in the region.
“We followed the guidelines set out by the AAMDC (Alberta Association Of Municipal Districts and Counties) and in those guidelines, it’s specific to how municipalities go about declaring an agricultural disaster and we did not fall within those guidelines,” she said. “With those recommendations and with our findings, we decided not to declare.”
Examples of those guidelines involve the municipality considering whether the agricultural disaster covers the entire region or just an area, the type of crops affected, and the amount of data supporting an agricultural disaster claim.
Tigert noted that farmers with crop insurance could still make claims with Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) since agriculture minister Oneil Carlier declared a provincial agricultural disaster under the Fiscal Planning and Transparency Act Nov. 22.
