The Rural Voice, 2004-04, Page 55News in Agriculture
Now's not the time for more rules, MPs told
With the stress of the BSE crisis
and low prices, farmers do not need
the additional pressures of new
provincial and federal environmental
restrictions, Huron farm leaders
attending the March 20 Members of
Parliament meeting told their
political representatives.
From a crackdown by the federal
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
to the introduction of nutrient
management plans to future plans for
protecting source water, farmers are
ill-equipped to handle more
regulations right now, Paul Steckle,
MP and Carol Mitchell, MPP for
Huron -Bruce were told.
Concern of the switch of
enforcement for provisions of the
Nutrient Management Act from the
Ministry of Agriculture and Food to
the Ministry of Environment was
raised by Carol Leeming in
delivering a brief from the Huron
County Egg Producers. Under the
previous Progressive Conservative
government enforcement had been
under OMAF authority.
Mitchell said the change was a
recommendation of the O'Connor
inquiry into the Walkerton water
tragedy but it would be the same
people hired by OMAF who would
now be working for MOE. "I've been
given assurances they have a very
strong training in agriculture," she
said. "I expect everyone in this room
to hold my feet to the fire (on this
promise)."
But Larry Lynn of the Huron
County Corn Producers worried that
having a different boss can give
people different priorities.
Bob Hallam wondered whether
these MOE staffers were going to be
giving farmers advice in solving
problems or if they would be there to
trick farmers into revealing
information that can then be used
against them.
Paul Mistele, executive member
of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture said a committee
representing farm groups had met
with MOE officials several times on
the issue and asked what role they
would be playing when they arrived
on a farm: enforcement or education?
Mistele worried that MOE
officials needed to have an attitude
adjustment after hearing that one
field person had said "I don't want
any friends out there" because it
made enforcement more difficult.
"Well they've been successful,"
Mitchell quipped.
Jeff Robinson of the Huron
County Federation of Agriculture's
environment committee asked
Mitchell about the delivery of
funding to help farmers comply with
the legislation that had been
promised before legislation would be
implemented.
Mitchell said Steve Peters,
Ontario's minister of agriculture and
food had hired the George Morris
Centre to do a study of the
implementation costs for the whole
program. "We need to know the total
dollars for the full implementation,"
she said. "There has never been a
projection for the total program."
Farm leaders also expressed
concern about source water
protection. Presenting a brief on the
subject, Huron Federation President
Neil Vincent said the program could
be expensive for farmers who own 85
per cent of the land in his area and
can't afford to pay for the program
themselves. "We have to do what we
can with the dollars we have," he
told Mitchell suggesting that the
planning process for source water
protection planning boards and
committees outlined in the O'Connor
Commission report may be more
elaborate than needed to protect
against another water tragedy such as
that in Walkerton. Had the problem
well never been put into use as
recommended by the drilling
company and had proper scrutiny of
record keeping been done by the
MOE and county health unit, more
restrictions wouldn't have been
needed.
"Five or six barriers in water
protection never happened at
Walkerton," he said. He suggested
the pendulum has swung too far since
Walkerton. "This is costing lOs of
billions of dollars throughout
Ontario," he said.
Les Falconer of the Huron County
Beef Producers complained about
officials from the federal Department
of Fisheries and Oceans sending
letters to landowners warning they
can be tined up to 53(X).000 if cattle
have access to streams.
"Now is not the time to he sending
farmers letters." Steckle agreed.
"Farmers keep getting blamed for
everything."
He said he had co -hosted a
meeting in Lambton County with MP
Rose -Marie Ur with 160 angry
farmers and officials from the
environment and fisheries and oceans
departments and people seemed to go
away feeling they had been heard.
Some of the requirements are
ridiculous. he suggested. "How do
you fence a flood plain?"0
PMRA too slow, fruit
growers complain
Continued from page 50
won't do research here." Marshall
warned. "We're losing scientists."
Marshall said there have been
proposals for joint approval by
Canadian and U.S. regulatory
authorities but companies wouldn't
go along with that because the
slowness of PMRA would slow use
of the product in the U.S. as well.
He pointed to an organic spray for
apples and pears that involved
spraying a clay substance on the
fruit. It took four years to get this
spray approved for use in Canada but
meanwhile fruit sprayed with it was
being imported from other countries
where it could be used. Obviously it
was not a food safety issue but an
indication of PMRA not being
willing to do the work, he said.
"Harmonization is the only
answer," Marshall said. Canada can
maintain its sovereignty on the issue
by saying any product registered for
use in the U.S. is registered here
unless there is a compelling reason to
revoke the registration, he suggested.
"1 agree," Steckle said. "We're
124 products behind (in registering).
We've approved four products in the
last two years. It's time we closed
the books on PMRA."0
APRIL 2004 51