The Rural Voice, 1979-01, Page 48IINEWSLETT!jI
F
Huron County Federation
of Agriculture
Area Office: Vanastra, Box 429, Clinton
To West Wawanosh Township Federation of Agriculture,
Members
By Tony McQuail
Dear Fellow Members.
1 have just returned from being your delegate to thc Ontario
Federation of Agriculture Annual Convention in Hamilton and 1
would like to share my reactions with you before they cool.
My most vivid impression is that OFA is indeed "Farmers
Working For Farmers". The convention was a gathering of
farmers from across Ontario. For three days we listened to
reports from OFA Committees on the past years activities and
recommendations for future programs. We dealt with resolutions
that had come from County Annual Meetings and set the
direction for OFA in this corning year. This was a serious
responsibility and an exciting undertaking.
Our Federation now has around 23.500 members from thc
farms across Ontario. We are the strongest farm organization
and we are facing increased demands for services and evaluation
of impending legislation which will effect the farm community.
However the increased staff and more committees to study farm
issues and bring forward recommendations on farm policy have
also increased the expenses of the Federation.
A thoughtful program of investment has made it possible to
have a reserve cushion however for the second year in a row OFA
has run at a deficit and the Annual Convention passed a
resolution increasing the iSM annual fee to 550.00. Many
methods of improving OFA's financial picture were discussed.
Could we get a lot of new members which would increase
income? Could we cut programs which would reduce expenses?
Should we increase our fee?
Drastically increasing the number of Individual Service
Members is not an easy task though we must try if we are to keep
the Federation strong and truly speak for farmers across the
Province. Unfortunately, while increasing membership wor'd
increase income it would also increase expenses for OFA an •
thus would not greatly improve OFA's financial picture.
iF we reduced programs would we close down r"gional field
offices? Would we say no when various governments requested
OFA input on food policies and appearances before cohnmittces
investigating food prices? Would we stop doing research and
participating in discussions on the Petty Trepass Act. the Line
Fences At. The Health and Safety Act and the Farm Machinery
Act? While reducing OFA programs seemed a sure way of
reducing expenses it also appeared to be a sure way of reducing
OFA's effectiveness as a farm organization and its ability to deal
with important farm concerns.
For thews reasons the delegates at the Convention felt that the
best s',tution to OFA's financial shortfall was to increase
membership fees to 550 per year (545 per year for members on
automatic renewal). The feeling was that OFA membership is
still a pretty good bargain. As one delegate pointed out it is still
-Only a quarter acre of corn or an . eighth of an old cow. Our hope
was that current members would not be upset by the fee
increase.
It is important to ask what our OFA membership fee gets us.
OFA lobbies each year for the Provincial Farm Tax Rebate. This
PG. 48 THE RURAL VOICE/JANUARY 1979
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Huron County
FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURE
Monthly Membership Meeting
JANUARY 4, 1979
8:30 P.M. SHARP
OMAF BOARD ROOM,
CLINTON
DISCUSSION GROUP
We will be working in small groups and we
want to hear your opinion. What should the
federation be doing? Help give your or-
ganization direction.
Bring your Neighbour!
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allows us to get 50 percent of our property taxes returned (which
for most of us is more that enough to pay our property taxes
returned (which for most of us is more than enough to pay our
membership fee.) OFA has also lobbied against the mineral
rights tax which would have cost farmers fifty cents an acre. OFA
has lobbied for farmers on many other issues as well. However
all of these things von by OFA benefit all farmers whether they
are members or not. We felt at this convention that there needed
to be special programs of economic significance solely for OFA
members. The Ontario Farm Machinery Agency has served this
purpose. This year two new ^rotzrams were added by the
Convention. One was it Terni 1 i.ie Insurance Plan and the other
was a health and dental care plan. I believe these plans offer a
group type of insurance coverage oo hich wiIl be usteful for the
farming community. These programs will only be available to
Federation members.
We hope that these programs will help encourage farmers to
be active ISM supporters of the federation rather than remain
non members and let other farmers carry the cost of OFA while
they receive the benefits of OFA's activities on behalf of all
farmers.
We dealt with many other resolutions during the course of
the three days. Some dealt with the disposal of industrial wastes
in rural areas. one was on a beef marketing proposal. ARDA and
the Capital Grants program were also supported by resolutions.
We also resolved to seek improved compensation for reactors
destroyed in the Animal Contagious Diseases Act and for
livestock killed by predators. Another resoluti&n dealt with the
need to protect farmers from obstruction of their normal farm
operations by non farm rural residents.
In all we dealt with oyes• 50 resolutions and recommendations
and 10 committee reports.
There were many highlights of the Convention. The first was
the business like fashion with which the convention was run. We
got down to business and stuck with the agenda. The
Parliamentary procedure worked well. We had important
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