One of the primary roles of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is to communicate successfully with farmers and with governments. This week provides opportunities for both, and as OFA President, I find it a challenging task.
We are expecting to hear from a lot of frustrated and angry farmers as I tour the province. These farmers are just barely surviving a year that saw the devastation of BSE, a skyrocketing Canadian dollar that has undermined profitability and an escalating regulatory regime that could have huge costs to the farm community.
Granted, Ontario farmers have been brought under the federal Agricultural Policy Framework and the benefits that is expected to provide, but there are so many other farm issues that must be positively addressed.
OFA recently made a presentation to the province’s Standing Committee of Finance and Economics – our opportunity to take the farmers’ thoughts and concerns to government. We used that meeting to paint a vivid picture for the politicians of why farmers are feeling so dejected and unrepresented in the halls of power.
We stressed the realities of farmers being squeezed to the maximum by a system that demands the highest quality product for one of the lowest prices in the world – we know that because February 7th is Food Freedom Day in Canada, the day of the year by which Canadians have earned enough income to buy their year’s supply of food.
The Standing Committee of Finance and Economics was also told that increasingly farmers are being met with regulations and management systems – all adding to their production costs with little or no opportunity to recover any of those costs. Meeting the requirements of the Nutrient Management Act could have enormous cost implications for farmers, and we can’t get answers to some of the basic questions.
There have been vague references to assisting farmers with the costs of compliance, but nothing specific. What will the overall costs be? What level of government support will be in place? When will it be in place? Will funding be available with sufficient lead time? Farmers need answers now if they are to maintain confidence in their future.
The same can be said for food safety programs. Our governments keep insisting consumers, both domestic and international, are demanding greater food safety measures, but farm organizations have looked at what’s necessary and know farmers can’t begin to pay that bill. It’s going to be very expensive, but there’s no indication of a public willingness to help with those costs.
We pointed out to the committee a long list of things governments could do to reduce the burden being placed on farmers. These could be done with little or no cost to taxpayers, but they need immediate government action to give farmers confidence in their future.
Something as simple as a fair definition of agricultural use for property assessment purposes is needed to halt property taxes from skyrocketing. Without the government’s intervention with the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation to keep such things as maple syrup production facilities assessed as agricultural, an industrial assessment classification will send property taxes out of reach of farmers.
We tried to make the elected officials from all parties understand that they have an opportunity and an obligation to the farmers of this province. We asked them to act decisively on both policy and funding questions so that the stress of uncertainty would be reduced. We reminded them that support for the farm community is also support for the 650,000 Ontario jobs that depend on the agricultural industry.
Over the next few weeks, as we tour the province, I’m certain that the frustration that farmers are feeling will be evident. We want to get past the frustration and the anger. We want to hear farmers’ solutions, and we want to take those ideas to our elected officials.
~Ron Bonnett~
President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture