HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1976-12-16, Page 30Farmers aren't cry babies
They get accused of being cry babies.
They get slammed for being one of the most subsidized
industries in Canada.
In recent years, farmers have learned to complain in
places where the complaints are heard. Thus, the agri-
cultural sector of this province has been lambasted by
every two-bit politician and armchair legislator in the
country.
' But if anyone in this province has cause to protest the
treatment he is getting, it is the farmer.
People laughed at Walter Miller a few years ago when
he was president of the old Ontario Farmers Union. His
biggest threat seemed as hollow as a shout down a rain
barrel when he talked. of farmers withholding produce
until they got a fair deal in the market place. I always
admired Walter for his"daring threats.
It is most unfortunate that this articulate man has had
to take a back seat since the Ontario Farmers Union be-
came a part of the National Farmers Union. Roy Atkin-
son has been president for too long in my humble opinion.
He has become jaded and useless to Ontario farmers.
It is obvious to most farm observers that the farmers
union has lost its credibility in Ontario in recent years.
Only a handful of people know exactly how many mem-
bers the national union has in Ontario today because the
NFU has never felt it necessary to reveal membership,
even in the days when they may have had as many as
20,000 Ontario members in good standing:
I hope recent estimates of membership are not true. I
heard one farm writer say recently that he doubted if the
NFU has any more than 4,000 members in this province
today.
Be that as it may, farmers have good reason to cry
these days. Organized labor has had pay increases of
• less than 10 per cent by the anti-inflation board. The con-
sumer price index has risen by approximately 6.8 per
cent since the controls were implemented. Eipmentary
mathematics indicates that most workers are slightly
ahead of the cost of living index.
But farmers are not.
Net farm income is expected to drop by about 25
per .cent this year. Although gross income may increase,
the net figure is the important one.
Dairy farmers have had to cut back production by at
least 20 per cent and this cutback comes when production
costs continue to rise.
Beef farmers are still reeling from an unprecedented
three years of low prices. The expected increase in beef
prices predicted -for last summer just simply did not
materialize. Beef farmers are quite likely to suffer net
losses this year.
Grain farmers, too, are in for a tough year. Wheat
prices, for instance, are down at least $1 a bushel. Barley,
oats and corn prices are in the same category. Corn farm-
ers watched helplessly last month while prices dropped
almost a dollar a bushel in four or five weeks.
Hog farmers are in a mess, too. After a couple of years
of amazingly high prices, the hog market slumped con-
tinuously since the summer months to a low as this is
written of around $52 a hundredweight compared to $77
a year ago.
Chicken farmers are under pressure from low-priced
imports from the United, States. Net incomes for turkey and
egg producers are down and fruit and vegetable farm-
ers are still recovering from a disastrous spring. Cherry
growers were almost wiped out in May. Even grape
growers with a bumper crop this year are battling for
reasonable prices simply because they were too success-
ful, They have had. to accept government aid in marketing
their crops, •
Pea crops, sweet corn crops, cucumber and tomato crops
were all down in production and/or acreage this year so
those farmers will have less net income.
In short, farmers have every reason to complain. They
have spent the entire growing season producing the abun-
dance of food that keeps the food price index going down
and union wages rising faster than the cost of living.
Jack's Jottings
xpositor
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:THE HURON EXPOSITOR, DEgga40ER 16, 1976
a t
Report from Queen's Park
.,ne foot in tho
furrow' 'ow
Marriage --age may rise
Litters lore appreciated by Bob Trotter Wale Rd Elmira.Ont N38
(From Jack Riddell, M.P.P.)
Both Oppoiltion Leaders called
upon the Government to have an
emergency debate on the
Greyhound/Gray' Coach con-
troversy, which they considered
to be a matter of •urgent public
importance, which should take
precedence over other matters.
• After strong and growing
pressure in the Legislature. the
Ontario Cabinet has told the
Ontario Highway Transport
Board to reconsider the decision
to allow Greyhound Lines of
Canada Ltd. to compete with the
publicly owned Gray Coach Lines
Ltd. As Stuart Smith has pointed
• out, this would be equivalent to
Ontario handing over a $10
million public asset to a U.S.
controlled company,
The Minister of Transportation
and Communications has asked
the OHTB to re-examine the
economic impact of the decision,
and determine how this will affect
bus service to ° smaller
communities and Gray Coach,
The Provincial Secretariat for
Social' Development, The
Honourable Margaret Birch, told
the Legislature this week that
Family Court Judges will no
longer have the power to send
children. who have committed no
crime to training schools.
On January 1, 1977, an
amendment repealing Section 8 of
the Training Schools Act, will be
proclaimed. Section 8 of the
Training Schools Act, allows a
Family Court judge to commit a
so-called unmanageable child to
training school if no oth er
programme was appropriate and
if training school was thought to
be 'needed.
The Legislature voted to repeal
Section 8 in May, 1975, but
proclamation was delayed to
'allow the Province of study the
implication of the repeal and to
allow the PrJuince to establish
alternative placement for the
children in training schools under
Section 8.
As of December 3 of this year
there were 786 children still in the
wardship of the Minister of
Correctional Services under
Section 8 of the Training Schools
Act. Of this total 103 are in
training Schools. Others are in
group homes, foster homes,
special treatment centres and
their own homes. Mrs. Birch said
that after proclamation, some will
remain where -they are. She said
she would place herself in an
unconscionable position .if all of
these children were to have their
wardship terminated on January
1st, with no regard for their care.
Many of them are responding
positively to the care and
treatment they are receiving and
it would-be irresponsible to move
them from their community
placements.
Of the 103 children still in
Training School 42 are expected to
be returned to their own homes.
Another 15 children will be placed
in the Ministry's group homes
and 26 will go to ministry-super-
vised foster homes Twenty others
will be placed in boarding homes,
treatment centres and • special
facilities.
The' aim of the Ministry of
Correctional Services is to have
By Murray Gaunt M.P.P. —
- Attorney General Roy
McMurtry is propOsing to raise
the minimum age for arriage from
14 to 16. **).
The age needs to be raised, he
said, because the main reason for'
its being so low is to permit
marriages as away to avoid births
of illegitimate children.
There are those who are
pushing to have the age raised to
18, but the Attorney General feels
the age cannot be raised above
16, at which point children have
the right to withdraw from the
family home.
This matter is part of a package
of family law currently before the
Legislative Committee on Justice,
and will become law before
Christmas.
Liberal Leader Stuart Smith
said this week that Ontario is
handing over a $10 million public
asset to a U.S. controlled
company,
The Government recently
issued licences to the U.S.
controlled Greyhound Lines of
Canada Ltd. -for direct routes
between Toronto and Sudbury,
and Toronto and Buffalo.
moved all Section 8 wards from
Training Schools by September 1,
1977, and to terminate wardships
under Section 8 just as soon as
suitable alternatives to wardship
can be found.
Some administrative steps have
already been taken. On
November 23rd, the Minister of
Health issued a directive
restricting the circumstances
under which a psychiatric hospital
can lay charges against children
in their care. Charges cannot be
brought simply to relocate a child
who .is difficult 'to manage and
each case !Mist be reviewed by
the Minister.
The Minister of Natural
Resources, Mr. Leo Bernier, has
stated that his Ministry is seeking
ways of easing the Province out
of the camping business. He has
Previously these routes were
handled exclusively by Gray
Coach Ltd., a company owned
entirely by the Toronto Transit
Commission, and were the most
profitable routes the company
had. Because of this Gray roach
was able to subsidize service on
other routes that a were less
profitable or showed losses, such
as service to Owen Sound and
other• parts of Western Ontario.
Since Gray 'Coach now has
competition on its most profitable
runs, it said it could no longer
provide the same service to
Western Ontario.
The Government has come
under severe pressure to reverse
the decision, with the Liberal
Party asking for an emergency
debate fin the matter.
Meanwhile, following the
Cabinet meeting in. mid-week,
Transportation Minister James
Snow announced that he was
asking the Ontario Highway
Transport Board to reconsider the
decision. Mr. Snow said the
Board would not conduct a
re-hearing of the case, but would
extend its previous hear ing to
deal with two important factors it
apparently didn't take into
account before. These are the
financial impact on Gray Coach if
it loses the profitable routes, and
whether Gray Coach would have
to cut service on shorter routes to
smaller centres as a result. On the
latter point Gray Coach has
already announced cuts.
A bill to regulate funeral
directors and their services in
Ontario received approval in'
principle this week. The bill
would set up committees to deal
with complaints from the public.
The Ontario government is
planning to close most of its
provincially operated campsites
and lease the rest to private
operators.
10975, 1,617,707 people used
the 21,000 campsites in the 122
provincial parks.
The n ew policy, announced by
Natural Resources Minister Leo
Bernier, will start taking effect
next summer.
Want emergency debate on Greyhound
said the Government would like to
drop the financial burden of the •
21,000 campsites in 123 provincial
parks, which last year attracted
more than 1,500,000 campers. It
is estimated that the
campgrounds lose something like
$9.5 million annually, and the
government would like almost ail
provincial campsites to be in' the
hands of private enterprise
companies. However: it would
seem that it could take
approximately 20 years to hand
over all the campsites. The
Minister' made it clear that any
new provincial parks would not
have campgrounds in them, and
he indicated that no campgrounds
are under construction at present.
'40 6.4 • Ill
YEAR END SPECIAL
Save Now On Upholstering
Everyone wan
to reduce
new home costs.
• l•-•
Here's a new repor
that suggests how
it can be done.
4I
SPECIAL
WE ARE NOW AUTHORIZED •
Ontario's present uNk development standards
are among the highestin the world. However,
the standards set by our municipalities vary
considerably, a fact which in some instances adds
greatly to the cost of new housing:
Your Ontario Government believenbat realistic
development standards throughout the province
would lead to continued high quality new housing,
but at a lower'cost. This case is strongly presented
in a new report, "Urban Development Standards:
A Demonstration of the Poteptial for Reducing
Costs," issued by the Ontario Ministry of Housing.
The report points out how more realistic standards
coul&significanty redOce home mortgage
p'ayrrierits, and indicates that adoption of such
standards would in some areas lead to more
economical use of land, energy savings, reduced
pressure on agricultural land, and greater feasibility
for public transit. •
If you would like a leaflet summarizing the main
features of the suggested new standards; write to:
Communications Branch
Ministry of Hou'ing
56 Wellesley Street W., 2nd Floor
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2N5
Ministry of Housing
John Rhodes, William Davis,
Minister PreMier •
Province of Ontario -ar
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