The Rural Voice, 2000-01, Page 22missed. Over and over again people
interviewed also worry about not
having the unbiased voice of
OMAFRA as a source of advice.
Bob Humphries. who retired as
Ag Rep of the Clinton office a year
ago. says the push seems to be
toward relying on the private sector
to provide advice but farmers 'are
leery that a representative of a
chemical or a feed company may be
encouraging them to accept their own
products.
Shillinglaw says he made use of
OMAFRA personnel because
of their independence. If he was
dealing with something like herbicide
injury he wasn't sure he could get
unbiased information from a
representative of the chemical
company. He worries that farmers in
Ontario may get to the point where
they have to pay for any unbiased
advice they need.
Wilkinson agrees many farmers
will miss this ability to turn to their
local OMAFRA office for
independent advice. OMAFRA's
personnel had no commercial interest
in promoting any particular product,
he says. That kind of advice is not
the kind of thing that's so easily
transmitted over the phone.
The new approach seems to be
that OMAFRA's role is information
transfer but the ministry's role has
been significantly more than that in
the past, Wilkinson says. Ironically.
one of the ways extension staff
helped farmers was in assisting them
to adapt to new
technology. At one
time there was a large
staff of engineers to
help farmers with new
technology but those
were among the early
cuts in the ministry.
Hardeman told the
annual meeting of the
Ontario Soybean
Growers Marketing
Board the day
following the
announcement that the ministry has
been spread too thin because of its
shrinking resources over the past 15
to 20 years and couldn't continue to
be all things to all people.
"When an organization, a business
or an individual tries to do too much
at one time, the results are always
Karl Chittka:
Many farmers
left out by
changes
r
Barrie Metals Ltd.
Steel Depot
Full Product Range
Cut to size service
Shearing / flame cutting
Express delivery available
• NEW
• RANDOMS
• SECONDS
• USED
Call us today for your competitive quotation
220 John Street Owen Sound Tel: (705) 728-1643
Barrie. Ontario Tel: (519) 371-0803 Fax: (705) 725-8212
I.4\ 21.3 Fax: (519) 371-5795 Watt: (888) 340-7272
QUEEN'S BUSH RURAL MINISTRIES -- (519) 392-6090
Are there major changes in your life that are out of control?
Could you use a sympathetic listener and some help in dealing
• with your situation?
At Queen's Bush Rural Ministries, we've had 12 years
experience in dealing with ,,,
■► financial crisis v+ marriage and family problems
140>--c
r► emotional coping difficulties
Call us, we're absolutely confidential and free. Tr
With our extensive professional and volunteer personnel,
("fr1't1 we'll make those changes easier to deal with. 1-519-392-6090
18 THE RURAL VOICE
less than spectacular."
While the final impetus for the
move comes from the Progressive
Conservative government's two-
pronged plan to balance the budget at
the same time it cuts provincial
income taxes, people close to the
situation agree this is just the latest
contraction in a long line of cuts to
the ministry by governments of all
three parties in the past dozen years.
Humphries says the first moves to
cut the ministry came in the latter
years of the David Peterson Liberal
government. It was in the later 1980s
that the ministry began to cut its ties
with 4-H and other programs which
had been initiated by extension
workers. Since then cuts have come
in about three-year cycles. he says.
The concept of resource centres
has been around for years,
Humphries says. At one time it was
envisioned the University of Guelph
would operate them. Still, he says, he
'never imagined they would be a
replacement for extension offices.
Westlake says the idea of there
being only 12 OMAFRA offices in
the province has been floating around
since the early 1990s. By plan or co-
incidence that's almost the number of
resource centres now planned, he
says.
"I don't think senior management
is surprised," he says of the latest
restructuring. "I think it's been a
long-term plan. We were going to get
to this point, it's just a matter of
when. They may not have looked at
2000. They may have thought 2010.
"In one aspect I would hope this
isn't a knee-jerk reaction (to
government demands for spending
cuts). I would hope it's a long-term
plan."
No matter how long the plan has
been in existence, the manner in
which it was announced has raised
anger. In a press release, Wilkinson
noted that Hardeman had spoken to
500 farmers at the annual meeting of
OFA the previous week and didn't
mention a thing about coming
changes.
Chittka notes Hardeman "was
praising agriculture like you
wouldn't believe" during the OFA
convention, telling the farmers
present what wonderful things they
had done and not even hinting major
changes were on the way. (One