HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-10-22, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1986. PAGE 5.
Grossman says Riddell's voice loud, not effective
Continued from page 1
ridiculed Mr. Riddell (and con
stantly mispronounced his name)
for making headlines with his
statements without backing them
up withlegislation. He said Mr.
Riddell had made headlines an
nouncing a toll-free, 24-hour Help
line for farmers needing counsell
ing then later told a group of
farmers he had not expected the
Helpline to be used very much.
In opposition, he said, Mr.
Riddell had called the OMAF
(Ontario Ministry of Agriculture
and Food) News, “the ultimate
form of junk mail’’ and demanded
the government get out of the
newspaper business. Butin the
first issue of the paper after the
Liberals took power, Mr. Riddell’s
name had appeared 12 times on the
front page and the paper still
appears regularly.
Mr. Riddell, he said, had stated
there would have to be a reassess-
mentofthe OMAFstafftosee if
they had the interests of the farm
community at heart but there had
been no purge, he said.
There had not been one signifi
cant Liberal initiative since the
Lions
to help
Ron Nesbitt
Continued from page 1
Dublin, Seaforth, Clinton, God
erich, Auburn and Blyth have
already sent in promises of sub
stantial funding as well as offers of
personnel, and several prominent
individuals have promised contri
butions to the novelty auction,
which will be a highlight of the day.
Mr. Overboe says that he himself
has had an offer of $200 for his
luxurious beard, and Peter Hardy,
president of the Toronto Blue Jays,
who maintains a home near the
village, has offered to get “some
Blue Jay items’’ to auction off.
As well, Keith Cartwright,
Londesboro Lions Club President
Howard Cartwright’s brother, has
offered to bring the famous Forest
City Flyers basketball team to town
for an exhibition game as part of
the fqnd raising, although Mr.
Overboe says this will have to be
held on another day, since Novem
ber 29 is already jam-packed with
events. Keith Cartwright is a
member of the Flyers, the famous
parapalegic team from London.
All the events of “Back the Biter
Day ’ ’ have been planned for family
fun, and include a day-long talent
show, euchre parties, a box social
auction, and the novelty auction.
Admission to all will be by
donation, and both the Blyth school
and the Blyth Memorial Hall will be
used to stage the events.
“We’ve got a heck of a lot to do,
but don’t ever underestimate the
spirit of Londesboro!’’ Mr. Over
boe said.
Anyone wishing to donate cash
or talent to the day may contact Mr.
Overboe at 523-4416 any evening.
OFFIRR program, and it is due to
be wound down in 1988, Mr.
Grossman claimed.
Farmers are the victims of forces
beyond their control in trying to
battle export subsidies of the
European Economic Community
and the effects of the United States
Farm Bill he said, and he expects
the situation to continue to be bleak
until the 1992 to 1994 period.
He compared Ontario’s 10.5 per
cent agricultural budget increase
in a time of crisis to the 100 per cent
Wise challenges province to match aid
Continued from page 1
if approached by Ontario * ‘with the
proper figures ... on tabulated
damage.’’
He explained that a program of
spot financial assistance is avail
able through federal/provincial
funding, once the province has
declared a disaster. Using the
formula of $1 per capita for
Ontario’s8.5millionpeople, he
said that if the province kicks in
Crop insurance review plan
gets green light
The Federal and Ontario govern-
ments have agreed to set up a
committee to review the operation
of the Canada/Ontario Crop Insur
ance Program which has been
coming under heavy fire lately
from farmers suffering heavy
losses from weather-related crop
damage. Growers have complain
ed that the present program is
expensive and ineffective.
The announcement was met
with enthusiasm from the Huron
Federation of Agriculture, which
passed a resolution to set up a
committee to supply input towards
just such a review at its annual
meeting in Brussels October 9.
The new committee will appar
ently supercede an insurance
review committee appointed by
provincial agriculture minister
Jack Riddell after the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture issued a
critical brief on the program last
winter. Despite conflicting reports
of the activities of this committee,
no announcement has been made
of its outcome.
Speaking to farmers near Exeter
on Friday, Federal Minister of
Correction
in wheat
stabilization
BY BRIAN HALL
FARM MANAGEMENT
SPECIALIST FOR HURON
COUNTY
The eligibility of spring wheat on
the Winter Wheat Stabilization has
been changed. Hard red spring and
soft spring are not eligible.
Farmers who have submitted
application forms, that included
spring wheat, should notify the
Farm Income Stabilization Com
mission, OMAF, Legislative
Buildings, Queen’s Park, Toronto
M7A 1B7. Indicate the number of
tonnes of spring wheat that was
included with the winter wheat.
Adjustments can then be made on
fees paid.
increase in expenditures for Alber
ta and 75 per cent increase for
Saskatchewan.
He promised a Conservative
government would bring in a
Family Farm Security Act which
would guarantee prices at 10 per
cent over stabilization levels for
1985-86. There would also be
provision for setting aside margi
nal land. Later, he promised, a
formula would be developed to link
income support payments closer to
the cost of production.
with the first $8.5 million, the
federal government will match it,
and in some cases exceed the
amount of provincial funding.
‘ ‘This has been done four or five
times in the past 24 months in other
provinces, and on every occasion,
the approach has been success
ful,” Mr. Wise said. He added that
“the province might do well to
consider a larger designation (of
funds) ’ ’, which may in turn trigger
Agriculture John Wise said that
the task force had been implemen
ted at this time to take advantage of
the high degree of interest in the
shortfalls of the present program.
“When things are going well,
you can’t get anyone to talk about it
(crop insurance); but maybe we
canusethistimetoexpedite the
changes required,” he said.
“I’m happy to join with the
provincial minister in establishing
this task force to expedite amend
ments to the plan, to bring it up to
date, to make it more acceptable,
more useful to Ontario farmers.”
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Mr. Grossman also hit out at Mr.
Riddell’s statement on the day he
was sworn in as Minister of
Agriculture that Mr. Grossman, a
Jew, might have trouble in rural
Ontario because of a racist feeling.
He invited his audience to show
Mr. Riddell in the next election that
his terming of rural people as racist
is offensive. He said he knew there
wasn’t one person in Huron County
who would change the way he
voted because of religion. He
urged his audience to celebrate
the second program, the federal/
provincial Disaster Relief Pro
gram, which provides payment for
things not normally insurable.
When asked if he could give any
indication of how much of the $1
billion in federal farm assistance
announced by Agriculture Canada
last week might be targeted to
Ontario, Mr. Wise suggested that
the amount might depend upon the
provinces donation.
“The (provinces) have their own
In an inspection tour of damaged
crops in Huron County earlier this
month, Mr. Riddell repeatedly
criticized farmers for not entering
complaints against the crop insur
ance program before they faced a
total wipe-out, as many have done
this year. “Farmers themselves
are pretty much to blame for the
situation (with the program)” he
said.
Details of the review commit
tee’s terms of reference, its size,
and where public hearings will
be held will be announced within
three orfour weeks, Mr. Wise said.
with him next election night by
proving Mr. Riddell was wrong.
The dinner was part of the first
fundraising event of the newly
organized Huron Progressive Con
servative Riding Association. Due
to redistribution the two ridings in
Huron will become one at the next
election. Mr. Riddell has already
said he will contest the riding for
the Liberals while Murray Elston,
currently representing Huron-
Bruce, will move north to Bruce
riding.
priorities, and the ability to decide
what priority they want to place on
agriculture, and what priority they
want to place on farmers, who,
through no fault of their own,
(require aid),” the minister said.
“Asa federal government, we are
not going to stand by and see
farmers go down the tube.”
In his final statement to the
farmers near Exeter, Mr. Wise
said that a meeting with the
Ontario Bean Marketing Board in
London last week had resulted in
the authorization for the Board to
provide an initial payment of
$445.70 per tonne of beans harves
ted, up from the original payment
of $280 per tonne.
In addition to boosting the initial
payment to give producers the cash
they so badly need, the federal
government will guarantee the
bean board’s operating costs to
enable it to market the crop
decimated by at least 65 per cent as
a result of the incessant rain.
In an interview following the
agriculture minister’s visit, Bev
Hill, ofHill & Hill Farms Ltd. of
Varna, and a member of the
six-man disaster committee, said
that he felt Mr. Wise’s response
had been favourable.
“We are optimistic that there
will be some sort of assistance
provided,” he said. “Hopefully, it
will be provided in time.”