The Rural Voice, 1989-04, Page 88BRUCE
44610th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1 P9
519-364-3050
• The Rural Voice is provided to Bruce
County federation members by the BCFA.
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
BCFA IN OTTAWA
On March 20 the Bruce County
Federation of Agriculture made its fifth
lobby trip to Ottawa. The purpose of
these efforts is to give a grassroots per-
spective on agricultural issues and pol-
icy to the federal bureaucrats involved
in the agricultural industry. The BCFA
lobby is meant to complement and rein-
force similar lobbies from the OFA and
CFA.
This year we met with special assis-
tants to Don Mazankowski and Charlie
Mayer involved with the special
drought assistance program. Catherine
Drew, director for the livestock drought
program, explained to us the format and
data used to calculate which counties
were to be eligible for drought assis-
tance.
It would appear that the main reason
Bruce was not eligible was the lack of
data. In fact in the whole of Bruce there
are only 10 field plots to provide the
information to run the computer profile
for the county. Given the size of Bruce
County, there were many extremely dry
areas that did not figure into the final
calculation. Ms Drew indicated that
there would not be a similar drought
program in 1989.
Ken Wright, special assistant to
Charlie Mayer, is the program director
for grain drought assistance. He in-
formed us that the interim payments for
corn and soys was $16 per acre and that
when the final analysis is completed the
figure would double or be somewhere in
between, depending on your township.
This figure will be based on crop insur-
ance data.
Mr. Wright further explained that
small grains payments will be calcu-
lated later this spring and also will be
calculated on crop insurance data. He
stressed that payments will differ from
corn and soys and that if your township
qualified for interim payment on corn
and soys that small grains will not nec-
essarily be eligible.
Both program directors stressed that
they will accept late applications and
that if you haven't received one yet you
should contact your MP.
We also met with senior officials of
the Farm Credit Corporation. They
were informed that there seems to be an
inordinate amount of foot dragging by
FCC officials in our area and admitted
that our area is worse than some other
parts of Canada in this regard. They
discussed a new cash flow payment
schedule they are looking at, similar to
FEDERATION BUSINESS
It was reported that Cecil Bradley's
discussion on OFA issues and policies
was the highlight of the annual Direc-
tors' Seminar. The BCFA is proud to
report 25 new OFA members in the past
month.
Our annual "Meet the Members" and
"Tommy Cooper Award" are scheduled
for April 8 in Elmwood.
The Poechman Commission re-
ported on a meeting with Elbert van
Donkersgoed. Elbert emphasized that
our goals must be other than economic,
i.e., environmental and social. How-
ever, we should use economics to
achieve these goals. A possibility may
be to tie government monies to steward-
ship.
A special presentation by John
Bryce was heard. He updated the board
86 THE RURAL VOICE
on conservation authorities. He said
that the Saugeen Valley Conservation
Authority could reasonably amalga-
mate with the Grey Sauble Authority.
He also mentioned that Saugeen was the
first authority in Ontario to have flood
wamings and has set an example as a
progressive authority.
Farmers, apparently, may not be
given preferred insurance rates for farm
vehicles. Therefore a resolution was
passed that the OFA lobby for the allow-
ance of farm rate classification.
The BCFA will present a letter to the
Bruce County Milk Committee asking
the committee to support OFA policy on
BST.
An increased commitment from the
Bruce County Council was graciously
accepted.
commodity -based loans in that pay-
ments are based on your annual income
and would fluctuate yearly.
We got a commitment from Jim
Hewitt, the chairman of FCC, to come to
Bruce County and talk to FCC clients
who are having problems dealing with
FCC staff. If you have a problem with
FCC and would like to talk personally to
Mr. Hewitt, call our office.
In the afternoon we were received by
several officials of Agriculture Canada
at their head office. He we had a discus-
sion with Al Turner, program director
for tripartite, who received our concerns
about this program. Ken Wylds, Agri-
culture Canada futurist, talked about
where they see agriculture going in the
next 10 years. Based on his information,
we would not recommend getting into
the grain business.
Dr. Richards, director general of
Agriculture Canada, gave us an insight
into the effects of free trade and the
GATT process.
We from Bruce County got the un-
derlying feeling that the future of Cana-
dian agriculture is not rosy. At all our
meetings there was the hint that govern-
ment involvement in agriculture via
subsidies, stabilization, and special pro-
grams is going to lessen in the future.0
Ron Garland
Rural Connections has been initiated
to deliver mental health counselling and
set up support groups for rural people.
Displeasure with the Drought Assis-
tance Program should be passed along to
our local MP and MPPs.
President Ron was thanked for an
excellent speech given at the Mildmay
Agri-Spiel.0
Bruce County Federation of Agriculture
MEET THE MEMBERS DINNER
AND TOMMY COOPER AWARD
Saturday, April 8, 1989
Elmwood Community Centre
Social hour 6 p.m., Dinner 7 p.m.
Tickets $10/person, $20/couple
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