The federal and Ontario governments are working to increase the compensation farmers can access for damage caused by predatory wildlife.
Through the new Wildlife Damage Compensation Program, livestock producers will receive improved compensation when their livestock or poultry are injured or killed by predatory wildlife, or when bee colonies, beehives or beehive equipment are damaged by wildlife.
The program expands the current list of wildlife species and variety of livestock that farmers can be compensated for, and increases the maximum compensation rates for farmers.
It also provides a $30 reimbursement for each claim a municipality processes; provides a $50,000 fund for strategic investments with industry to better understand how to prevent agriculture-wildlife conflicts; and, commits to reviewing the program every two years to ensure it is up-to-date.
The Wildlife Damage Compensation program is part of Growing Forward, a joint federal-provincial-territorial initiative.
Federal Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz, commented “This new program is a positive example of cooperation between governments and industry to create effective business risk management programs that benefit the sector as a whole. This program will help farmers recover from and prevent losses caused by wildlife.”
Ontario Minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Carol Mitchell added, “Not only does this program expand the number of wildlife species and the types of livestock they can be compensated for, it also helps us refresh maximum compensation rates regularly, keeping them in line with current market values.”
Guidelines and applications are available at www.ontario.ca/predation.
Since 2009, almost 13,700 livestock animals were injured or lost due to predators like coyotes or wolves in Ontario.
Public safety information can be found at www.ontario.ca/wildlife.
