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The Citizen, 1999-12-08, Page 6PAGE d. tME erfteteN, WEDNESbAY/bECtMBEP 8,1998. Letter to the editor OMAFRA change concerns OFA president THE EDITOR, An open letter to Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Ontario Farmers Change is always difficult to accept, under any circumstances, but the changes announced for the serv­ ice delivery offices of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on Dec. 2, seem almost too drastic to comprehend. Ontario farmers have long relied on the personal contact with their agricultural representative and the specialists associated with each office to provide a clear understand­ ing of the latest technology coming to the industry, and to play a role in the leadership of the rural communi­ ty. Under your new scheme most of that will be lost. You offer 13 resource centres for all of southern Ontario in exchange for the 32 field offices. It seems incomprehensible that all the farmers in southern Ontario will be able to get the information they need from f,_ese resource centres in an efficient and timely fashion. As you know, farming is a very complex industry requiring a lot of time and devotion. When a farmer needs information or service, time is usually a critical factor. The new technology you suggest farmers will have to use to access the mformation from the resource centres may not always function as well as personal No closures option of choice Continued from page 1 No closures was by far the option of choice while moving Grade 7 and 8 to the high school ranked second. The third choice was to make the high school JK to OAC. When the Seaforth group attends the school board meeting, there is hope a letter detailing 33 requests will be discussed. Prepared by the group and for­ warded by their lawyer, the board has been asked, among many other things, to remove the Seaforth area schools from consideration until they have had at least the nine months of contact at the local OMAFRA field office. At a time when increasingly advanced technology is coming to the industry, it is really untimely for OMAFRA to be withdrawing the personal services farmers need. We need more expertise close to the farmer, not further away, and not connected with agri-business. lead time afforded other communi­ ties to prepare options, to study why the board is losing students, to review the renewal/renovation esti­ mates, to remove a gag order on teachers and board staff, to challenge the Ministry of Education and Training with regards to capacity and loading figures and to improve com­ munication and many issues. The board will also be asked to provide the group with considerable documentation which could support their fight against closure and to con­ sider several other options before resorting to school closures. Farming communities are finding themselves with fewer and fewer volunteers to lead vital organiza­ tions. The ag rep. could usually be counted on to help find the right peo­ ple to make things happen, whether for 4-H, the local soil and crop asso­ ciation, or a local commodity organ­ ization. These catalysts will no longer be available to rural southern Ontario. Your proposal points to existing agricultural organizations to pick up the responsibility of delivering infor­ mation to farmers. Most organiza­ tions find their resources stretched to the limit already and may find it very difficult with a few more packages added to the load. Plan rejected, question unanswered Continued from page 1 to county council for approval in January, which would still be in time to allow the new municipality to be read for the November, 2000 elec­ tion. But after the plan was turned The Ontario Federation of Agriculture, in the past, has pointed out to you the high value the farmers in Ont^fio place on their OMAFRA field offices - responses to docu­ ments such as the Ontario Agriculture and Rural Advisory Services Study authored by Terry Daynard and Frank Ingratta, the cur­ rent OMAFRA Deputy Minister. We would ask you to remember the OFA’s position has not changed and our disappointment with Thursday’s announcement can’t be overstated. Yours truly, Jack Wilkinson, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture. down, Bob Broadfoot, reeve of Tuckersmith wondered how the agreement could be clarified enough for the county to approve it without Wingham giving up its legal claim against the county. No one answered the question. 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