The province's Minister of Agriculture's looking forward to the new session of  the Legislature, which began last week.

"I do hope there's a lot of support for rural Manitoba that comes from it," says Ralph Eichler. "We're hoping to bring legislation forward on the ag-cap checkoff. We've been working in consultation with them, working with Cabinet and the rest of the members to ensure that we'll be able to move that forward this session so it can be put in place so they don't have to go through another year of the old outdated program that was introduced when things were different. We have a survey out now that's available for producers and farm families to provide their input to ensure we get things right. The survey will be back on Mar. 9th, and we can work on getting the results."

Eichler says they announced the Agri-Insurance Program for coverage in 2017. "It's expected to exceed $2.6-B with 9.6-million acres of land. That's the second highest level of coverage on record. Agri-insurance coverage is increased on average by 7% while premium rates are down by an average of 4% as compared to last year. It's fairly ambitious and producers can forward with their outcome of the made in Manitoba Green Plan, developed in consultation. Flood preparedness is something we need to be ready for as well. I can encourage your listeners to look at resources at Manitoba.ca/flooding. It's really important as well, we also want to remind people that Mar. 31, 2017 is the deadline to apply for the Farmland School Tax Rebate, so I encourage them to do that as well."

"As you know our government is working ambitiously on an agenda that will make progress on repairs on our services, fixing our finances, and rebuilding our economy," adds Eichler. "Our government will be presenting our budget on April 11, 2017, that will direct our province down a road of recovery. And to ensure the sustainability of the services that Manitoba families rely on today and into the future. As Manitobans, we all know there are some tough decisions to make, but we also want to outline the road path to hope and rebuilding our economy as well."