Ontario Elections 2007

In order for OCPA membership to be able to make as informed a decision as possible prior to the October 10, 2007 election, the Ontario Corn Producer magazine invited the political parties to present the highlights of the agricultural platform from their election campaigns. The following information appears as it was submitted by the respective parties.

Farmers are the very people who helped build Ontario. They feed Ontario still. Yet today more and more farmers are falling behind; and widespread indifference from the McGuinty government makes an already difficult time worse. One farmer from York Region told me how his son wanted to follow the family tradition and work on the farm. His son also had a job offer in an office. I remember how visibly distressed that farmer was when he related to me how he told his son to take the office job because there wasn’t a secure future in farming. Stories like this are far too common. Over the past five years, nearly five percent of Ontario’s farms have shut down and nearly 200,000 acres of farmland have been taken out of production. Among the farmers that remain, life is tough, with nearly one half of all farm operators having to resort to an off-farm job or business just to make ends meet. Dalton McGuinty once promised he would make the Ministry of Agriculture a ‘Lead’ Ministry in government. Yet after getting elected, Mr. McGuinty presided over the largest cutbacks seen in decades at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. These days, Mr. McGuinty is acting like he had an 11th hour conversion and is promising new risk management programs. But by now we all know how little an election-season promise from Mr. McGuinty is actually worth. A John Tory PC government will work with farmers and make real new investments that our farmers deserve to see. First, we will provide peace of mind through a robust system of price protection so that Ontario farmers finally have a level playing field with their counterparts in the United States and elsewhere. We will also borrow best practices from other jurisdictions, including the Farm Income Stabilization Insurance program in Quebec, to give Ontario farmers the security they deserve. Second, our Government will work with farmers to negotiate a new, long-term, stable and flexible program of farm supports and – We will invest $150 million in new annual farm supports in our first budget and this investment will increase to a total of $300 million in new annual farm supports by the end of a four year mandate. Third, a John Tory PC Government will immediately launch a full value-for-money audit of Agricorp to ensure that this institution provides value for the tax dollars invested in it. It is unacceptable that programs designed to make life easier for farmers instead become a never-ending story of delays, paperwork, and waste. This is unfair to the farmer and unfair to the taxpayer who is right to expect that any tax dollars that go to agriculture are spent prudently, promptly and well. And fourth, we will ensure that Ontario farmers can rely on a strong and growing market. We will also initiate a real “Buy Ontario” program that will open up new markets for Ontario farm products right here at home. Our platform is based on a firm commitment to work with farmers and ensure so that they will always be able to compete and succeed. For a strong place for farmers in a stronger Ontario, leadership matters.	The Ontario Liberals know how important it is to help our farmers, and we’ll keep moving forward. We know our farmers are still hurt by unfairly subsidized competition. That’s why we provided more than $1 billion over the past four years for farm income stabilization and support programs. This includes providing $55 million for the Ontario Cost Recognition Top-up – we’re the only province to participate on a cost share basis in the national program. When the BSE crisis hit our farmers, Ontario Liberals were there, with more than $110 million in direct payments and an additional $60 million to assist the industry. Most recently, we worked with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and representatives of the grain and oilseeds sector to develop and implement the three-year Risk Management Program. For the 2007 crop year, we will provide the province’s 40 per cent of the program funding and waive farmer’s fees for the first year. We have invited the federal government to participate but will move ahead regardless. Farmers are good stewards of the land and we are working with them with our $28 million Drinking Water Stewardship Fund to protect drinking water sources. We have also provided over $20 million to help livestock farmers make nutrient management improvements. Our energy policies are also opening up new economic opportunities for farmers. There are new ethanol plants in several communities, farmers are now seeing economic benefits from windmills on their properties and we are providing financial assistance to invest in biodigesters. We are also helping turn Ontario’s harvest into new materials and creating new economic opportunities through the Ontario BioCar Initiative. Ontario Liberals are committed to helping our farmers sell their products and raising consumer awareness, through our Buy Ontario strategy. To build on this success, Ontario Liberals will: • implement the risk management program; • promote fresh, locally produced food with our $13 million per year investment in Buy Ontario and at farmer’s markets; • help young farmers through loan assistance and financial incentives; • help farmers pass ownership of the family farm by ending the land transfer tax imposed when an incorporated family farm is transferred back to a family member; • continue to support supply management with the federal government and at international negotiations; • continue to support hog farmers and their long term strategic planning; • work with farmers to identify and address taxation issues that have impact on farmers, formalizing work we have done on issues such as sugar shacks and equestrian farms. Let’s not go backwards — let’s keep moving forward, together, for an even stronger rural Ontario.	Hampton puts farm families first with Grow Ontario Plan The NDP puts hard-working farm families first with Grow Ontario, the NDP’s plan for farm families to make a decent living and get ahead, says NDP Leader Howard Hampton. Hampton says that the key to the NDP’s practical plan is to help Ontario farmers who carry too much risk. “Farmers carry climate change risks, market risks, American farm subsidy risks, currency risks and energy price risks – and they’re paying the price all by themselves,” Hampton said. “It is simply unfair to force farmers to deal with all these risks all by themselves. If we want safe, healthy and affordable food then society must do its fair share and help farmers with some of these risks.” The NDP Grow Ontario plan calls for a Made-in-Ontario risk management strategy that guarantees farmers a reliable, bankable level of income, year after year, based on a cost of production formula. The NDP Grow Ontario plan will also help farm families tap into markets for healthy, locally grown food by launching a major expansion of Foodland Ontario retail outlets and guaranteeing shelf space for Ontario produce in Ontario supermarkets. Grow Ontario would be a major improvement over Dalton McGuinty’s out of touch policies like cutting provincial agriculture spending in real dollars by 10 per cent, raising hydro rates through the roof and dithering instead of proposing solutions to the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization mess. “Grow Ontario fills the void left by Dalton McGuinty, who gave himself a $40,000 raise, but failed to do anything to help farm families who are working to save their livelihoods and provide a decent future for their children," Hampton said. Other elements of the NDP's Grow Ontario plan include: • An Ontario First Ethanol Plan to make sure Ontario farm families are first in line to supply corn for taxpayer-subsidized ethanol plants. • An Ontario First Wine Content plan to make sure any wine labeled Ontario Wine contains wine made from Ontariogrown grapes. • A commitment to work with Ottawa to overhaul the CAIS program to enhance its effectiveness and its overall coverage. • Protect farm families from predatory pricing, listing fees the major retail chains impose to take money out of producers’ pockets. Hampton says the NDP plan is a practical response to farm families’ concerns about the unfairness of the status quo, that saw the average Ontario farmer realize a net income negative $15,000 in the year 2006. “Ontario can’t go on making its farm families pay to grow our food. It’s time we fixed the system to make sure farm families get a fair day's pay for a hard day's work,” Hampton said.