The Rural Voice, 1993-06, Page 10"Our experience
assures lower cost
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Adrian Vos
Lack of vision by NDP government
We all applaud any measure that
will reduce the provincial deficit,
except when the reduction comes partly
out of our own pockets.
Farmers,
through their org-
anizations, have
displayed consid-
erable maturity
when they, by and
Targe, accepted
the cutback of
agricultural
spending by the
Rae government.
The only
objection made by
the 01.10 is about
a cutback in the
Land Steward-
ship program,
while the OFA
and the NFU are more concerned about
the closing of New Liskeard College.
The OFA is also protesting all the other
proposed cutbacks of the budget for
agriculture.
My own concern coincides with
Roger George, the OFA president, and
with NFU's spokesman, Perry Pierce,
where these two gentlemen are con-
cerned about New Liskeard, and I
sharply disagree with the position of
the CFFO who want to close even more
colleges. I believe that the proposed
Centralia and New Liskeard closings,
and the position of the CFFO to close
another two colleges, shows considera-
ble lack of vision. An educated farmer
can figure out how to be a good stew-
ard of his land. An uneducated one
will have problems regardless of
provincial financing.
The Rae government doesn't seem
to be aware of the greatest need of our
modern society, the need to have more
knowledge, and I am disappointed that
the CFFO leadership, who are usually
forward looking, also don't understand
this need. When, on one side, millions
are spent on teaching people to learn
welding or run a computer and other
manual skills, skills that can be mast-
ered in a short time in evening courses,
there is a much more urgent need for
extended education, and this includes
farmers. When the farm tax rebate is
frozen, which means a saving of $7.1
million, it would make more sense to
cut that back by an additional $5.7
million and leave the colleges alone.
Oh, I know that such talk is akin to
blasphemy to the farm organizations
and their members. Roger George
already has lashed out at the intended
freeze. But let's be reasonable. I am
retired and a rural resident. I live on a
lot of two and a half acres and my taxes
are comparable those on a 100 -acre
farm. That is because the farm is only
taxed on its buildings. The farmer is
favoured over other businesses whose
business buildings are also included in
the property tax. Farmers have nothing
to complain about when the rebate is
cut back. (Oh yes, I forgot. Farming is
a way of life and not a business.)
The savings in the closing of the
colleges is even less than claimed
because, as Gary Struthers reports in
Ontario Farmer magazine, that saving
is reduced by income from student fees
and livestock sales. We need more
educated people on our fauns. They
have the best chance of making a living
from farming. The time when the
smartest member of the farm family
was sent to institutions of higher learn-
ing to become a professional and the
less academically inclined son learned
farming from good old dad, has long
passed. A farmer who cannot analyze
every segment of his or her operation,
however small that segment is, is
doomed to be a hobby farmer at best.
Is this what Rae and Buchanan (a
former school principal, no less) and
CFFO's Arend Streuters want? Hobby
farmers produce food, whether they
make a profit or not, and hence cheap
food for the consumer.
The whole handling of the situation
shows a serious lack of vision.
I haven't even mentioned the
important research that goes on in both
colleges. Animal research and crop
research are vital to the area. Add to
this the contribution the colleges make
to the area in social endowments to the
area they serve on which no monetary
value can be placed.0
Adrian Vos, from Huron County has
contributed w The Rural Voice since
its inception in 1975. He is a writer
and raises exotic birds on the farm
where he raised pigs for many years.
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