The Rural Voice, 2003-10, Page 54News in Agriculture
Huron -Bruce candidates debate issues
Continued from page 49
regulations. One operator he knew
was asked to spend $600,000 on
improvements "for stupid stuff that
didn't do a thing to increase food
safety."
But Mitchell claimed that by
cutting full-time government
employed meat inspectors and
replacing them with part-time
workers the meat inspection system
had been compromised. Those part-
time workers had done a remarkable
job given the circumstances, she said,
but at the end of the day there was a
need for better inspection.
Robertson pointed out the
provincial auditor had identified
problems with the meat inspection
system and NDP Leader Howard
Hampton has raised the issue several
times.
"This current government let us
down," he charged.
Hannah, who spoke before Johns,
said she was waiting to hear how
many inspection hours Johns was
going to take credit for because "the
number of hours goes up depending
on how much trouble the government
is in."
All candidates pledged financial
support forfarmers to implement
nutrient management planning. But
Joslin qualified that support saying
education is better than "creating one
more level of bureaucratic power."
"We've been clear we will support
farmers financially" to implement
nutrient management, Johns said.
Her government will also phase in
the program and talk to farm groups
as the program develops, she
pledged.
Hannah said the Green Party would
absolutely support farmers in
implementing nutrient management
but at the same time the problem was
not really with small farmers but
with large operations. "It is not in our
best long-term interest to move
toward large agribusiness," she said.
Mitchell said it was a strong plank
in the Liberal platform to assist
farmers in meeting nutrient
management goals. It's in the best
50 THE RURAL VOICE
interest of the whole community to
help the process, she said.
Robertson criticized the current
legislation brought in by Johns's
government. Under those regulations
a farm in his home area of Brockton
with over 300 livestock units can
now use an earthen manure pit, he
said, but a farm with under 300 units,
can't because it comes under the
local bylaw.
Answering a question on rural
school funding, Mitchell promised a
moratorium on rural school closures.
The Liberals would cancel corporate
tax cuts and reinvest the money in
essential services like schools, she
promised.
But Robertson claimed the Liberal
platform would give less to education
than the current government. Still, he
said you can't close rural schools that
are the centre of their community. He
said his party would create a
dedicated education excellence fund
that would, among other things,
provide funds to help rural schools.
Johns acknowledged that there
were problems with the school
funding formula as it applies to rural
schools. When she was attending
similar meetings in 1995 people were
saying it wasn't fair that far more
money was spent on each student in
Toronto than in rural areas. The
funding formula has solved that, a
fact recognized in the Rozanski
Report, she said, though it also said
there were problems with the formula
when it came to the problems of rural
schools.
Hannah said the Green Party is in
favour of decentralizing government
which would put the decision making
and the resources back in the hands
of local communities to make such
decisions. Her party also supported
amalgamating all local schools under
one school board, she said.
Joslin argued that you can't keep
schools open if they are half empty.
He also argued for a voucher system
that would allow parents to take the
money that would have been spent in
the public system and spend it on any
form of education, including private
schools. He argued it would make the
public education system more
efficient because it would have to
compete for students.
One questioner pointed out that the
Avon Maitland District School Board
had spent $197,000 to do a
government -approved study of
busing that proved its system was 97
per cent efficient but had received no
extra money and was having to use
money from other areas to pay for
education. What's worse, he claimed,
the school board had to borrow the
money for the study and hadn't been
reimbursed.
Joslin agreed that if the school bus
system is running efficiently it should
be funded properly by the provincial
government.
Johns admitted there was a
problem with rural schools and
funding for transportation saying
funds are going to Toronto schools
for students to take the subway.
"We are trying to find a way to
give money to the boards that
transport students on the farthest on
yellow school buses," she said.
Mitchell said there's a $1 million
shortfall in money for busing kids to
schools in Huron and Perth. If the
board doesn't get support for that it
must take the money from other
programs, she said.
Robertson said that through the
NDP's dedicated educational
excellence fund, money would be
provided for helping children have
quality of education. He called the
Conservative's approach to education
"bizarre. Their answer to everything
is a larger and larger bureaucracy."0
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