The Rural Voice, 2000-04, Page 74BRUCE
Email: bruce@ota on.ca 519-364-3050 or 1-800-275-9551
www.ofa.on.ca/bruce
www.ofa.on.ca/bruce
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
Left out and let down again
Any opinions expressed herein may not
necessarily reflect the views of the Bruce
County Federation of Agriculture.
It's that time again, The Rural Voice
deadline. There are so many burning
issues to cover it's hard to zero in on one
in particular.
I'm going to start with 'one of my
favourites, the infamous Minister of
Agriculture for Ontario. A good friend.
neighbour, and a member of the Bruce -
Grey Drought Committee and I met with
Mr. Hardeman last August in Owen
Sound early one morning to discuss the
drought situation in Grey and Bruce
Counties. After we got over the usual
niceties I remember Mr. Hardeman said
he had been a feed dealer and lived in a
great part of the country where a lot of
foreign investment was coming in for
farming.
In 1998 we had a devastating drought
in our area and we were desperately
trying to get some assistance from the
provincial government. We basically
discussed the drought situation and then
argued for one and a half hours and went
home in disgust. After that performance I
felt like a whipped dog and remember
thinking, "Oh my God that guy represents
the fine farmers of Ontario".
Since then the government has cut
4-H funding, closed local OMAFRA
offices, tried to cut funding to fall fairs
and wiggled out of paying their share of
negative margins, etc. etc.
On November 4, Lyle Vanclief,
Federal Minister of Agriculture,
announced that the Federal Government
would pay their share of negative
margins, and then it took the provincial
government three and a half months to
decide to do next to nothing. They call
the Provincial plan the Whole Farm
program, I personally think they should
have left out the "W" and it would be
closer to the truth.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture
has fought hard to have negative margins
covered, to no avail. So who does the
government listen to, if not the provinces
largest general farm organization (44,000
members)?
Saskatchewan and Manitoba worked
diligently with a balanced approach and
the help of their premiers to come up with
$240 million in federal money and $160
million provincial money. This money is
over and above the money and programs
already announced. Saskatchewan and
70 THE RURAL VOICE
Manitoba agriculture economies
combined, are very similar to Ontario.
It is interesting that we (Ontario)
signed a deal on February 17 and on
February 22 Lyle Vanclief says there's no
way there is any more money for farm
relief and then on February 25, the Prime
Minister announces $240 million more
for just two provinces. We, the farmers of
Ontario should hire some of their high
level bureaucrats and lobbyists to work
for us. I congratulate Saskatchewan and
Manitoba and their dedicated valiant
effort that led to great success.
Now Ontario farmers are sorrowfully
the "monkey in the middle" stuck
between Quebec, the USA and the West
who are all heavily subsidized. After
sitting back and looking at this pitiful
situation it would be my humble opinion
that Mr. Hardeman and some of his
senior advisors are the worst thing to
happen to Ontario agriculture since
mastitis and BVD.
With the continued cuts and
downloading it appears there is a devious
and long-term plan to rip the heart and
soul out of farming communities across
this province. To continue in this fashion
will destroy the moral fabric that bonds
communities together.
After talking to several astute
agricultural leaders it would appear that
some other farm leaders led the charge
against provincial negative margin
payments. If grain prices continue to stay
low and Market Revenue continues to
ratchet down and we have areas with
severe drought it will be interesting to see
how many dollars these out -dated
programs will put in farmers' pockets.
Years from now when we're still
scrambling to make a Farm Credit
payment, arguing with the bank and
wondering where we'll even find the
money to help our children with their post
secondary education, we'll think of these
farm leaders.
• Personally I think we've done too
much, for too little, for too long and in
some cases it's darn near too late. I
watched an old movie the other night
called Network and the actor said "we're
mad as hell and we're not going to take it
anymore". The time has come to be less
passive and even though we've been beat
into submission we need to really take a
stand.
• Phone or write your MP and MPPs, the
Minister's office, the Premier's office
• The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce
County Farmers by the BCFA.
with your concerns and problems and
solutions.
• Have farm kitchen meetings with your
elected representatives and lay the facts
and figures out to them in black and
white. This is one of the world's oldest
and most important professions and if
we'd like some of our offspring to carry
on this worthwhile endeavour it's not
time to lay down and give up.
If common sense, fairness, and
legitimate lobbying won't work maybe
we have to take a more rowdy militant
approach. If you are an employer
(farmer/taxpayer) and your employee
(Minister of Agriculture) didn't do as you
asked or as you liked, what would you do
with him?
I'm running out of space here, but not
comments.
One more item for now that is
perplexing us. We've heard a lot of
concerns and complaints about Forage
Insurance since Christmas time. After
careful investigation we've found several
areas of concern, raising questions for
which we have been unable to get
satisfactory answers from Agri -Corp. If
you have concerns that you have not
received the payout you expected please
contact us. Grey County — Harriet at
519-934-3268, Bruce County — Allan at
519-934-2928 or Bill at 519-353-5426.
Agri -Corp has proposed a new pilot
project for forage insurance, based on
rainfall only. At the time of writing, we
are not satisfied that there is enough
information available to expect farmers to
put their money down.' Before you sign
up phone Agri -Corp for more information
1-888-247-4999.0
– Bill Davis
BCFA Executive Member
Ontario Sheep Producers District 2
BUS TRIP to Kincardine area farms
SATURDAY, APRIL 8
$20 - includes dinner
Bus starts Owen Sound. through Desboro,
Hanover, Kincardine
To reserve - call Stu Radke 363-3968,
Don Emke 364-2149, Allan Taylor 371-3566,
Allan Ribbink 368-7691
BRUCE COUNTY FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
DIRECTORS' MEETING
MONDAY, APRIL 24 AT 8:00 P.M.
Location to be confirmed
(Please call the office)
Members are welcome to attend