The Rural Voice, 1983-07, Page 4All working
for agriculture
Enjoyed your June 1983 edition of The
Rural Voice. I was particularly touched by
the children's stories about "The Day My
World Was Taken Away" and "Farmers
Nightmare." Too bad stories like these
were not published in some of the urban
areas so the consumers from urban
Ontario and Canada would understand
that we as farmers are not always "in our
sea of green grass and tranquility" doing
our "better with butter" and "pork on our
fork" commercials. Our jobs, our liveli-
hood and our security is affected by
natural disasters, the weather and inter-
est rates, things over which we have no
control.
I wonder if the Ministry of Education
would include stories such as these in
their curriculum guidelines. They are so
well done and full of emotion. All of the
stories and poems and pictures represent
the rural populace as full of creative
positive aspiring as full of creative,
positive aspiring authors and poets. A
booklet of all these articles would be
great to promote Agri -week in October of
1983.
I also wanted to comment on the
article "People Development in Farm
Organizations." Keep the follow-ups
coming ---the tips are valuable and a
necessity for newly created and estab-
lished organizations in the agricultural
industry.
We all have the same basic goal and
objective - to promote agriculture in a
positive manner. Some of us just do it in
a little different manner than others.
However, we still need each and every
one of these organizations within the
framework of the agricultural industry.
As only four per cent of the population
we don't have time to dwell on our
differences but should certainly be
learning more about them so we can
understand our differences more readily
and even overcome most of them.
Let's put all our energies into working
for agriculture and not against each
other.
Eloise Calhoun
R R. 2, Chesley
Opposing rebate
We would like to thank the 800 people
who, as a result of an ad in your
publication, wrote letters and returned
the coupon opposing the proposed 100%
tax rebate. Special thanks to the people
in Wellington County where 34 farmers in
one township signed their names in
opposition, at the same time that their
county O.F.A. said that they had 35
people vote in favour with 5 opposed.
This valued support encouraged us to
PG. 2 THE RURAL VOICE, JULY 1983
FEEDBACK
question lawyers, accountants, business
people and even the Ontario assessment
experts to study and understand the long
term ramifications of the proposed 100%
rebate. A few of the many interesting
things we have learned are:
(1) The $20 million being spent on this
program does not offer a great monetary
benefit per individual Ontario farm, e.g.
$6. on one farm.
(2) When one considers that we will no
longer be able to claim any portion of our
taxes as an income tax expense, we may
find ourselves in a loss position. The
100% rebate can also have a negative
affect on your Property Tax Credit.
(3) Interest groups in the future may
give very compelling reasons before a
judge that because they have helped pay
our taxes, they should be able to
question whether we can operate our
farm buildings and land in certain ways.
(4) Those farmers operating under a
cost -of -production formula really do not
need a rebate because their taxes have
already been incorporated as a legite-
mate cost component.
(5) Business people serving the farm
community are now questioning why
they have to pay both business and
property taxes.
(6) Municipalities are increasingly
worried about the future of their local
autonomy.
We have taken these and other
concerns, along with alternative sugges-
tions, to the Honourable Dennis Tim-
brell, the special Liberal Task Force and
all Levels of the O.F.A.
Mr. Timbre ll has said that he believes
that there are costs related to land and
buildings and also that he saw no reason
why the present 50°i° rebate could not be
legislated if farmers, in fact, preferred
the present plan.
The Minister also asked us if we would
be satisfied if the education tax was
removed and rebated. We believe that
this was the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture's original position.
Concerned farmers and business
people can assist us by immediately
writing to the Honourable Dennis Tim-
brell, Minister of Agriculture, Queen's
Park, Ontario stating their opposition to
the proposed 100% tax rebate.
George Underwood
Jim Armstrong
Wingham, Ontario
Tax debate
The Ontario Government's proposal to
rebate 100 per cent of the property taxes
on all productive agricultural land and
farm buildings is to be debated by the
Directors of the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture (O.F.A.).
The debate will be at the July 20
meeting at the Howard Johnson Airport
Hotel on Dixon Road, near the Toronto
International Airport. The meeting starts
at 10:00 a.m. and is an open meeting
where any Individual Service Member
(I.S.M.) of the O.F.A. is quite welcome to
attend. Any I.S.M. could participate in
the discussion, but only duly elected
Directors will have a vote.
If you are interested in seeing how the
O.F.A. responds to the wishes of its
members on the issue of property
taxation be sure to attend.
Jim McIntosh
Regional Director
Huron West Central
Don't say "fat hog"
Could I please obtain the name of the
author of the article entitled "Get Better
Before Bigger", p. 34, The Rural Voice,
June 1983 edition.
With specific reference to the third
paragraph that quotes "fat hog barn" --I
would like to let you know that by 1983
standards our hogs are not fat, especially
when compared to the human race. The
Home Test R.O.P. program showed 2,360
boars tested in 1967 with an average
backfat of 21.8% and 165.5 days to
market. The hog industry in the 1982
R.O.P. program achieved 13.1% backfat
and 159 days to market. According to my
calculations, that is a 40°ro reduction in
backfat.
The term fat hog is derogatory and an
insult to the O.P.P.M.B. promotion
committee that spends approximately
one million dollars a year trying to
promote the image of pork.
Richard Smelski,
Swine Specialist
Editors Note: This article was part of a
press release package from a Canadian
bank.
Pertinent piece
Received The Rural Voice for June and
found the article "People Development in
Farm Organizations" very pertinent. I
shall put it into my workshop seminar file
for future reference and quotes. Excellent
piece.
Then on page 44 - "But How Do You
Spell It?" Exactly my dilemma last winter
when teaching "More Sense than
Dollars" and using soy beans or soya
beans (whatever). I wondered at the time
about the correct spelling.
Hilde Morden
R.R. 1, Rodney
Topical issues
an interesting magazine. Congra-
tulations on producing such a topical