The Rural Voice, 1999-06, Page 48no cuts to agriculture back in 1995."
McQuail said his party supported
supply management and the need for
farmers to get a fair price for their
products. "You'll hear a lot about
trickle down economics and tax cuts
but I think fair prices and fair wages
are a better way to put money in our
pockets."
Freiburger said the fact farmers in
other countries received subsidies
meant that Canadian farmers needed
help. "But on a level playing field
you're not going to find anybody
more innovative and entrepreneurial
than Ontario farmers."
As a consumer, Freiburger said,
"I'm willing to pay a premium for the
Ontario Product. It looks good, it
tastes good."
The Family Coalition party
supports the right to farm and wants
to encourage farmers to protect the
environment.
A question on the number of
university students being used as
teachers in classrooms because of a
shortage of qualified teacher touched
off vigorous debate on education.
"We're very concerned with what
we've seen happen in education in
the last four years," said McQuail.
"Not only do we see unqualified
people being used but we also see a
very demoralized teaching staff and
school system."
McQuail promised to cancel
income tax breaks for those earning
over $80,000 and invest $360 million
back into the public school system
"to ensure that our local schools stay
open, that we have qualified teachers
and that we are supporting the
education, especially the early years
education, of our children."
The community's trust in the
education system has been seriously
eroded, McQuail said. Underfunding
the public system creates increased
pressure for a private system, he said.
Freiburger said the Family
Coalition Party believes in a voucher
system, making everyone more
responsible for the success of the
school system. With the voucher
following the student, the parent will
make sure the student is getting the
best education or will put the child in
a different school where there will be
a better education, she said.
44 THE RURAL VOICE
News
"It will be up to the school to
make the effort to offer the best
education, the moral teaching, the
environment for the child to grow
educationally, mentally, physically,
to make their own decisions," she
said. "The responsibility is going to
be up to the parent to pick the
education and the money will follow
the child. The schools will have to
compete with each other and do the
best that they can do."
But Johns said the Progressive
Conservatives "definitely believe in a
publicly funded system and we don't
believe in a voucher system. We will
not have anything to do with a
voucher system."
Johns said the College of
Teachers, started by her government,
will decide on the qualifications for
teachers, who should be in the
classroom and who shouldn't be in
the classroom anymore.
Lamont said the problem of
unqualified teachers in the classroom
was caused because not enough
students are being attracted to train to
replace retiring teachers. The
profession must be made more
attractive, he said.
On the subject of the 20 per cent
top -up under the school funding
formula to assist rural schools,
McQuail said his party would change
the whole funding formula by adding
more money for the system.
Johns said the government had
called it a "permanent" top up and
she warned against abolishing the
"fair funding formula" of her
government. Before the formula was
introduced, she said, Toronto schools
spent $9,000 per student while Huron
and Bruce schools spent $6,000. If
the Liberals reverse Bill 160, she
warned, "it will mean our kids go
back to $6,000 and the city kids get
$9,000."
Later, one questioner told Lamont
the Liberal's pledge to get rid of Bill
160 would turn power back to the
"bloated bureaucracy" of the school
boards.
McQuail, a former trustee on the
Huron County Board of Education,
defended the efficiency of that board.
Bill 160 just turned power over from
a local bureaucracy to one in
Toronto, he said. "Every time you
centralize you lose some control," he
said.
On farm environmental policy,
Freiburger said her party supports
Nutrient Management Plans (NMP)
and the responsible use of chemicals.
Not all farmers are known for taking
the time to read the directions on a
farm chemical before using it, she
said.
It is important to keep water, air
and earth for future generations, she
said. "We are just the stewards of this
land," she said.
Right -to -farm legislation is
important for farmers to be able to
continue to grow the food needed for
the future, she said, but farmers must
be encouraged to be proactive in
protecting the environment.
"A lot of the responsibility has to
sit with the farmer, otherwise the
government will step in and make
legislation that you are not going to
like," she said.
Johns said she had worked with
farm groups, from the Ontario Soil
and Crop Association to the Huron
Environmental Coalition, to form
partnerships on farm environmental
issues and said working together was
the answer. "I'm not in any way
considering a legislative solution on
the environment," she said. "I think
what we have to do is come up with a
way that we can all work together to
come with a way that will allow
farms to be able to operate and allow
people to be able.to live closely with
farms."
Lamont promised to work with
farm organizations to establish a rural
ground water protection strategy. He
also promised support for farms in
developing NMPs.
As well, he said, Dalton McGinty,
party leader would create a premiers'
council on agriculture and one of the
issues it would be dealing with would
be farm environmental issues.
McQuail said an NDP government
would reestablish the minister's
environmental round table.
He said many people worry that
NMPs are voluntary and there is no
way to enforce the standards the farm
operator sets in order to get a
building permit. He said his
government would put $50 million
back into the Ministry of
Environment and Energy so it can