The Rural Voice, 2006-12, Page 68T
HURON
Box 429, Clinton, Ontario NOM 1L0
519-482-9642 or 1-800-511-1135 Website: www.hcfa.on.ca Email: huron@ofa.on.ca
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
• The Rural Voice is provided to all OFA
Members in Huron County by the HCFA.
HCFA recommends farmers withhold permission to snowmobiles
The Huron Federation of
Agriculture will be recommending to
its members, that they not allow their
farm lands to be used by snowmobiles,
until government enacts a fully -funded
Risk Management Plan.
This was not an easy decision to
make. We have done everything we
could to get government to respond to
our on-going problems competing with
the completely unrestricted imports of
highly- subsidized U.S. grains, but to
no avail.
Everyone tells us they support us,
everyone tells we are doing a good job,
everyone tells how polite, and how
considerate we are, yet after every one
of our demonstrations and protests, we
go home to the reality that U.S. farmers
continue to get about $100 per acre per
year ( $1,000 per truckload of corn)
more in government support, than we
do, and that while we were away
protesting, just that many more
truckloads of subsidized U.S. grain
came across the border.
The reality is that our grains and
oilseeds farmers are using up their
equity, and increasing their lines of
credit, waiting for government to do
something, and the Huron Federation of
Agriculture, decided it had to do
something to break this impasse.
One of the issues we face is that we
could "lose friends" and that is a valid
Board of directors' news
At the October 23 Board of
Directors' meeting two new Huron
County Federation of Agriculture
board members were appointed to the
HCFA Board of Directors: Larry
Burns, representing McKillop
Township and Carmen Drost
representing Hullett Township.
The following four directors were
named the Executive Directors to assist
the three Presidents of the HCFA,
Marilyn Broadfoot, Bruce Bergsma,
Brian Wightman and Ken Scott.
The HCFA plans to sponsor up to
three delegates to the Young Farmer
Forum at the OFA November
Convention.°
64 THE RURAL VOICE
issue. Nonetheless, the larger issue is
that without government assistance to
address this substantial, and on-going,
trade injury, we definitely will lose
farms, and likely the entire grains and
oilseeds sector, thereby causing our
"friends" to lose us as customers,
permanently. We see the problem as
squarely the fault of government,
and instead of criticizing us for our
actions, criticism should be directed
at government, for their inaction.
We further take the position that we
are, like many sectors who have
collective bargaining rights.
withdrawing our services, (hopefully
temporarily) to advance what we
believe is a fair. sound, and, for us,
vital, cause. Furthermore. the "service"
we are providing is definitely not an
"essential" service. Equally
important is that this is a completely
voluntary action for any individual
farmer to consider. Some farmers
will comply, some won't, and
everyone's decision will be treated
with the utmost of respect.
We have met with representatives of
Distinct 9, and District 5, of the Ontario
Federation of Snowmobile Clubs, who
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The Huron County
Federation of Agriculture
would like to wish all
OFA members and farm
families in Huron County
a very Happy Holiday
Season and to thank you
for your support
in the past year.
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have asked that farmers who make the
decision to revoke permission for
snowmobiles to travel on their
property, to notify their local
snowmobile club, in writing, that as
the owner and /or occupier of the
land, they wish to rescind land use
rights to that club, and that they
need to do this as soon as possible.
They have asked farmers to identify
the owner, the occupier ( if different
from the owner) the lot, concession,
Township, and Municipality of their
farms, and to provide a signature.
The snowmobile people have been very
responsible, and very professional, and,
once our issues with government have
been resolved, we will do everything
we possibly can to help get snowmobile
trails fully open again.°
HURON COUNTY FEDERATION
OF AGRICULTURE
There will be NO Board of Directors
meeting for December. Next meeting
will be Monday, January 22, 2007
HCFA makes
nomination to the
Agriculture Hall of
Fame
The Huron Federation of Agriculture
has nominated Ray Wightman of
Wightman Communications to the
Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Wightman Communications has
serviced areas of northern Huron in
telephone, Internet and other forms of
rural communications. The company will
be 100 years old in 2008 and was
responsible for getting many "party" lines
changed to private phone systems.
Ray is now 85 years old, his two sons
now carry on the business.0
Wildlife Habitat Canada presents
Countryside Canada Award
The "Countryside Canada Award", presented by Wildlife Habitat Canada was awarded to
the late Vic Roland and accepted by his wife Margaret at the Annual Meeting of the Huron
Federation of Agriculture in Seaforth on October 19.
This award raises the profile of agricultural stewardship across the country and
increases public awareness of the need to maintain wildlife habitat and bio -diversity.
Vic was nominated for the award two months before he passed in December of 2005.0
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