P.E.I. agriculture insurance surplus to stay in fund

The provincial agriculture minister says that a $10 million surplus by the P.E.I. Agricultural Insurance Corporation will remain in the fund to cover future claims by Island farmers.

In the closing days of the sitting of the legislature, Alan McIsaac suggested the government had moved the surplus out of the fund and invested it elsewhere in the provincial budget. He is now clarifying those remarks.

"The money for the AIC or the Agricultural Insurance Corporation always stays in that fund," he said. "That fund is strictly for paying out crop insurance [claims] if it's needed."

McIsaac says that because of the surplus, the premiums paid by farmers were reduced this year by almost 20 per cent.

Because crown corporation finances are included in the government's books, the surplus reduced the government's overall deficit last year by $10 million.