The Rural Voice, 1988-10, Page 68GREY
446 10th St., Hanover, Ontario N4N 1P9
519-364-3050
The Rural Voice is provided to all Grey
County Farmers by the GCFA.
County Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
IN SUPPORT
OF CHECKOFF
The minority Tory government in
Manitoba is about to give its farmers
what the majority Liberal government
in Ontario has so far failed to give its
agricultural producers, a checkoff to
finance general farm organizations. The
Manitoba farm checkoff was contained
in a throne speech recently.
For more than a year, the OFA and
the CFFO have been lobbying to get
checkoff legislated. These organiza-
tions say this funding is necessary for
long-term research and policy develop-
ment.
So far, our Ontario agriculture min-
ister has been stalling. Brigid Pyke,
OFA president, asks where the Peterson
and Riddell govemment is on this one. It
does not seem right that Ontario, Can-
ada's largest agricultural province, can-
not count on its own government to back
strong farm organizations which will
serve farmers' needs.
To represent farmers where they
need to be represented, we need an
additional stable source of funds. There
are serious issues we have not tackled
because we do not have research staff to
do the work.
Decisions being made by Canadian
farmers should not be made m default.
Farm organizations must be there to
represent farmers' interests, and that
boils down to dollars and cents.
The funding proposal endorsed by
the OFA and the CFFO calls for a check-
off of $100 or 2 per cent of the property
tax rebate, whichever is the larger, up to
a maximum of $250 per farm family. A
farmer chooses the general farm organi-
zation to which the money should go. If
he or she chooses, a farmer may request
a refund from the organization origi-
nally selected to receive the money.
It is interesting to note that a check-
off to fund general farm organizations is
supported by the Ontario New Demo-
cratic Party and the Ontario Progressive
Conservative Party.
The OFA has a strong voice for the
farmer of Ontario. More than 22,000
66 THE RURAL VOICE
DON'T MISS THE
Grey County Federation of Agriculture
ANNUAL MEETING
Wednesday, October 26
St. Peter's and St. Paul's Family Centre
Durham, Ontario
Guest Speaker: Don Hill
Social hour: 6:30 p.m., dinner 7:30 p.m.
For tickets contact any director.
farm families and 26 marketing boards
and commodity groups make up the
OFA. The federations work to create a
political, social, and economic climate
in which agriculture can thrive.
Perhaps you will say, why another
checkoff? It simply means the person or
persons who will not support or join an
organization now would help pay the
costs. If we have the manpower and the
money as support, the broader issues
that relate to education, energy, animal
welfare, waste management, property,
farm labour, farm machinery, finance,
land use, social development, and many
others can be dealt with.
Farming today has to have a strong,
united voice to put forth our needs,
which are greater than ever before.
Agriculture is now in a crisis. When the
average Canadian spends $1,650 on
food annually; $110 of that goes to the
farmer. That's 30 cents a day to keep
Canadian agriculture rolling.
Our farmers produce $20 billion
worth of food a year. A full 25 per cent
of the national output comes from On-
tario, a province thought of by many as
a manufacturing province. In Canada
today one person out of every five is
connected with agriculture in one way
or another.
Farming today is big business. Let's
get a solid voice out there to protect it.0
Lorne Eccles
Second Vice -President
REGIONAL
DIRECTORS
NORTH GREY Case Vanderham
R. R. 1, Holland Centre
794-3561
EAST GREY
Clay Schwegler
R. R. 1, Flesherton
924-2770
SOUTH GREY Bill Pullen
R. R. 1, Proton Station
923-6734