The USDA is updating the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase Two to provide a method for valuing losses and accessing program benefits to eligible producers of certain crops, or forage that is grown, stored and fed to livestock, that do not generate revenue directly from the sale of the crop. These updates ensure that ERP benefits are more reflective of these producers’ actual crop losses resulting from 2020 and 2021 natural disaster events. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) will begin accepting ERP Phase Two applications from eligible producers once this technical correction to ERP is published in the Federal Register and becomes effective. The deadline to submit applications for ERP Phase Two is July 14th.
The Canada and Ontario Governments reach a historic $10 billion settlement with the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations tribes… They reached the proposed $10 billion settlement with the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund, representing the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations. Since 2012, the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund, representing the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations mostly in northeastern Ontario, has been in litigation with the governments of Ontario and Canada for failing to increase annuities payments as the resource revenue in the treaty territory grew. “In 2012, 21 First Nations in the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory came together to hold the governments of Canada and Ontario accountable through the courts, but we know reconciliation cannot be achieved in the courtroom,” said Duke Peltier, spokesperson for the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. Those are your headlines at this hour.
I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.