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Week 12 - Vol.002
www.seaforthhuronexposltor.com
Buses
leaving
Thursday
for .Queen's
Park
At least three buses
filled with protesting
farmers are set to
leave Seaforth,
Hensall and Lucknow
for Queen's Park on
Thursday at 8 a.m.
"We realize the
province is flowing $80
million to .Ontario
farmers and that
sounds like a lot of -
money but it won't
cover it when the
shortfall is three or
four times that much,"
says Nick Whyte,
president of the Huron
County Federation of
Agriculture.
Along with
protesting the current
farm income crisis,
farmers will also be
lobbying for a risk
management program.
Buses leave Seaforth
from the south side of
the community centre
park and from
Hensall's Hydes Farm
Equipment.
Rigorous training
regimen nothing new to
Seaforth native...
Luke Veens prepares for a
second season in the
pentathlon, while still
swimming and playing rugby.
pg. 13
� 125
gst included .
Wednesday,
March 22, 2006
Farmers ready to fight for
Holmesville meeting draws 300 :producers protestin
Che'ry1 Heath
Huron County farmers are
ready to fight for their right
to parity.
That proved to be the
message Thursday night as
more than 300 ag producers,
suppliers and lobbyists met
at the Holmesville
community hall to discuss a
burgeoning grassroots effort
designed to draw the public's
— and urban centres, in
particular — attention to the
ongoing and not yet
redressed farm -income crisis
that is currently hitting the
grain and oilseed and beef
producers the hardest.
Bev Hill, a Varna -based
farmer who chaired the
meeting, urged the standing -
room only crowd to show
courtesy to the night's eight
speakers, which included
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex
MP Bev Shipley
(Conservative) and Huron -
Bruce MP Paul Steckle.
Huron -Bruce MPP Carol
Mitchell did not attend due
to an illness.
Doug Eadie, chairman of
the Ontario Corn, said it is
"frustrating and demeaning"
for farmers to continually
approach both levels of
government for support
when politicians already
know the current system
'cannot work and that
farmers' U.S. counterparts
are making more than
double on their grain and
oilseed products thanks to
subsidies.
While the main focus on
the association's wish list is a
Risk Management Program
(RMP), there is also a great
deal of frustration with
regard to the governments'
lack of reaction to farmers'
ongoing demonstrations.
For example, said Eadie,
provincial Agriculture
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ie . crisis
Varna farmer Bev Hill smiles as agricultural supplier Mery Erb
farmers at a meeting in Holmesville last Thursday.
Minister Leona-
Dombrowsky's office recently
issued a press release
wherein she pledges to bring
Ontario farmers' concerns to
the table during a meeting
with federal Agriculture
Minister Chuck Strahl.
Eadie wondered how that
can be.
"We haven't had a meeting
yet," he said. "We don't know
what that (Dombrowsky's)
position is."
He shunned the province's
argument the federal
government has to commit
before it can since other
provinces -- namely Alberta
and Quebec,— have already
stepped up to the plate to aid
their ag producers.
urges a level playing field with U.S.
Fighting inaccurate
information disseminated by
bureaucrats through the
media is another problem,
reported Wayne Hamilton of
the Huron County
Federation of Agriculture.
He reported one circulating
news story suggests the
recent $80 million
announced by Dombrowsky
for the grain and oilseed
sector is said to be giving
producers parity with U.S.
farmers.
Such is not the case,
confirmed Eadie, who noted
with the new funding,
farmers will receive about
$40 per acre of crop while
U.S. farmers are getting
about $145 per acre.
"There's a huge difference
there," he said.
Steve Webster, a Blyth -
area farmer who has been
staging a one-man sit in at
Queen's Park since last
Tuesday, participated in
Thursday's conference via
telephone to several rounds
of applause by those in the
hall.
Webster has received the
support of both NDP leader
Howard Hampton and PC
leader John Tory. Indeed,
Webster's 1991 Buick
LeSabre. is parked in
Hampton's spot at Queen's
Park.
That is not to say, reported
See DEMONSTRATORS Page 2