Ontario farm organizations have demanded an emergency meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty and Hon. Steve Peters, Minister of Agriculture and Food, to deal with the immediate crisis in agriculture and implement solutions to sustain farm business in Ontario.
Ontario commodity organizations and general farm organizations met here and by conference call Feb. 3 to seek solutions to the farm income crisis and plan ways to address the Ontario government’s silence and inaction on the matter.
“Farm incomes have been devastated by the BSE crisis, poor crop conditions, trade actions, record low crop prices, rising energy costs, and a crushing regulatory and legislative burden initiated by the Ontario government,” said Ron Bonnett, President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
“Individual farm groups have been trying to communicate ongoing and growing concerns in government consultations, advisory panels, letters, meetings, and submissions,” said Bonnett, “but the government has met us with platitudes or silence.”
The farm organizations have told the Premier and Minister Peters “this crisis cannot be ignored and must be addressed immediately,” Bonnett said. Thursday’s meeting resulted from a meeting in late January where grains and oilseeds producers met to talk about the looming economic disaster. Joe Hickson was a key organizer of both meetings, and said the Guelph meeting “is a big first step in uniting the farm voice in Ontario to get the changes needed.”
Participants at Thursday’s meeting vowed to work together as a team with government to get immediate issues addressed and develop future policy requirements. “The goal in Ontario has to be a sustainable farming industry that has positive returns for current and future farmers,” Hickson said.
The letter to Premier McGuinty and Minister Peters emphasized that “farm business in Ontario is in serious trouble” and called on them for action “within days.”
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Contact:
Keith Robbins, Ontario Pork 519-767-4600
Bill Mitchell, Dairy Farmers of Ontario 905-821-8970
Brian Doidge, Grains and Oilseeds producers 519-674-1525
Joe Hickson, Producer 705-878-8200
Ron Bonnett, Ontario Federation of Agriculture 416-706-1646