The Canadian Swine Health Board says temporary funding committed by the federal government will allow the organization to maintain its programs while a more permanent funding arrangement can be worked out.
The Canadian Swine Health Board was formally launched in 2009 to coordinate efforts aimed at keeping new diseases out of the Canadian Swine herd.
Core federal government funding ended March 31 leaving many of the organization’s initiatives in limbo.
Canadian Swine Health Board chair Florian Possberg says the organization has been functioning with minimal resources while it works to resolve the funding issue.
We had significant amounts of money that we did not spend from our last contribution agreement and we requested that those funds be rolled into a new period going forward to help us to transition to longer term Growing Forward 2 type funding along with industry participation.
That request has been spun around within the bureaucracy for about eight months now but the minister did suggest that we would get some temporary funding while they work on the longer term stuff.
Canada Pork Council working with the provincial boards have allocated a check off that is specific for the Canadian Swine Health Board so we do have those funds from producers to work with.
That’s helping to fund some of our activities today.
At the end of the day it is the producers that will not only benefit from good work but the responsibility is really theirs to do the right things on a daily basis.
Possberg says, if we can keep serious diseases out of Canada, the payback is 100 fold of what’s invested, and everyone is working toward that goal.
