The Rural Voice, 2000-01, Page 23e
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insider says ministry staff were
supposed to have been told about the
changes a week earlier but the
announcement was delayed.)
When word of the coming
changes leaked out to a local county
federation office and the intelligence
was passed on to OFA headquarters,
Federation staff called Hardeman's
office. They were assured as late as
the day before the announcement that
there were no plans for major
reductions in field service delivery,
the OFA's press release said.
Above and beyond the loss of
service with the closing of
local OMAFRA offices,
Chittka worries about the "good
people" at the local offices who will
be out of work because of the
restructuring. "Having that kind of
Christmas present must be hard to
swallow," he says.
Humphries said his phone was
kept busy, following the
announcement, by former colleagues
calling to talk about the situation. '
"I feel like a survivor of the
Titanic," he says. While he's happy
to have left the ministry in time to
escape all this turmoil, he has
empathy for his colleagues left
behind.
Some like Westlake, are close
enough to retirement to have the
option, though retirement packages
do not supply the same level of
income as the job did, he says.
Others aren't so lucky. Ironically
some of the specialists in areas like
soil and crop and beef may find work
with the kind of private sector
companies they once provided an
alternative to.
"I suspect some of the industries
are already contacting some of the
specialists," Westlake says.
No matter whether the OMAFRA
staff land on their feet or whether the
new centralized information system
' works, the perception remains for
many that agriculture is just not a
high' priority with the government.
"The impression we're getting is that
agriculture doesn't matter," says
Shillinglaw. Agriculture and food are
the second largest employer in
Ontario, he notes, yet it rates only
two or three per cent of the provincial
budget.
"I just think it's one more nail in
our coffin," he says.0
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JANUARY 2000 19