by SUSAN MANN
Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales says Premier Kathleen Wynne’s move to also name herself agriculture minister enormously increases the profile of the province’s farming and food industry.
“She said she wants to make it work,” he says. “She’s taken the portfolio and that shows a commitment and I’m willing to give it all the time and effort necessary.”
Wales made the comments after Premier and Agriculture Minister Wynne, along with her 27-member cabinet, were sworn in at Queen’s Park Monday. Wales was invited by the new premier to attend the ceremony and that’s possibly the first time a federation president has received such an invitation.
The cabinet includes some familiar faces along with several new people. Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal is the new minister of rural affairs as Wynne has divided up the agriculture and rural affairs portfolios.
“The premier recognizes that she has to speak to everybody and she’s putting out the olive branch to the opposition to work together,” Wales says, noting the challenge will be having enough opportunities to get the changes rural Ontarians need.
For farmers, Wynne needs to work with them and focus on fixing the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and endangered species legislations and developing a definition of primary agriculture under the Assessment Act. There’s also work to do on green energy and hydro, he says.
Some observers have said Wynne’s move to be agriculture minister is an attempt to get back voters the Liberals lost in the 2011 election. Wales says results will convince voters. “There’s lots of those things that can be fixed and getting them done is what rural voters will judge the premier and party on,” he says.
Other MPPs that hold ministries farmers deal with include:
• St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley – environment
• Sault Ste. Marie MPP David Orazietti – natural resources
• Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi – labour
• Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Bob Chiarelli – energy minister
• Mississauga South MPP Charles Sousa – finance minister
• Toronto Centre MPP Glen Murray – infrastructure and transportation
• Brampton-Springdale MPP Linda Jeffrey – municipal affairs and housing
• Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur – community safety and correctional services (that covers the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
Previous agriculture minister Ted McMeekin moved to community and social services while London North Centre MPP Deb Matthews remains as health minister and is deputy premier.
Wales says one thing he’s waiting to see is who the parliamentary assistants for the premier and agriculture ministry will be. Those people haven’t been named yet. BF
Comments
If the farming community ends up not being satisfied the premier will have a tough time getting any farmer votes in the next election. If on the other hand she gives us the profile and government backing we have earned she might just make some gains in rural areas. Are we as politically polarized as the Americans? If so not much will change. Interesting times.
Politicans are trying to buy rural votes by promise. Were will the money come from to give to ontario farmers and rural. Liberals cannot retain being govt party without rural ontario.
The problem is were do you get real govt money without govt debt financing, It cant be done and the majority of voters/taxpayers are too stupid / greedy to see that their entitlements increases the debt
New money maybe should just be saved or used to pay down the massive provincial debt . Pretty much all ag is doing Ok to unbelievably good . Look at quota values,land rents,land sales ,machinery, and the size of some of the new houses farmers are building. Pretty hard to say farmers are broke or have no money. Quite a few now sport net worth's of 10 to 50 million and a lot that is higher yet
With the new premier from an urban area, I would like to know how she feels about all the legislations in place which benefit agriculture primarily. With green energy, ethanol mandates and supply management, we simply have a transfer of wealth from our urban friends to agriculture.
Raube Beuerman
I remember how proud the Liberals were in putting the "RA" back in OMAFRA . Now Ms. Whynne has taken it out . Will the splitting of the ministry be a good move , time will tell . I think she needs to be told ( or at least figure out ) that there is a lot more to rural Ont than just farmers and agriculture . Farmers are just such a small percentage of the vote any more . She really needs to focus on the people who live in rural ontario who changed the color from red to blue because of green energy and wind turbine health concerns .
While OFA represents agriculture , who represents Rural ?
Glad to see Mr. Wales mention Green Energy as needing attention but will he push the fact of health concerns ?
Will farming be better off if we follow the opposition's wishes and work against the minister or the wishes of the Liberals and work with her?
I say the latter. If we don't like where she goes we can continue to vote against her party at the polls. If she does a good job we have the choice of voting for or against her. Either way we won't have to wait long to vote. I think OFA gets it.
I'd like to be a fly on the wall the first time the new Premier/Ag Minister finds out about the NFU, and tries to give an answer, any answer, to outraged NFU types who still can't understand why the NFU truly needs to be on the outside, looking in.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
When farmers are such a low % of population how come they get so many progams and cash compared too the working stiff.
Our former MP, Paul Steckle, used to ask us all the time - "Why should we give you more money when all you do with it is drive up the price of rent and farmland?". We didn't ever have, and couldn't ever have had, an answer that didn't make us look either imbecilic or greedy. On the other hand, Steckle was a huge supporter of supply management, and naturally, couldn't see, nor could we say, that we were seeking legislative relief for injury caused by other legislation.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
EQUITY WITH US FARMERS is what you had painted on a trailer .
Problem was that the Gov. could never see the fact that we have to compete with other coutries programs . They would always give us band aid programs .
Land and rent keeps rising as does the value of houses . Ever think you were being fed a political line ? No one wants to give Ag the credit it deserves because they just might have to anty up . Give the money to the big companies who hoard the money make it look like it will create jobs and then move out of the country . That's been working good for us .
Even though I advertised equity with US farmers, we'd have all been further ahead if we'd had equity with each other, by eliminating the financial bull-dozer of supply management. In addition, farmers always like to blame big companies, and that's a mistake. Big companies aren't monopolies, are almost always publicly traded, and therefore, if they were making obscene profits, it would be widely known, and competition would step in to reduce things down to a relatively-normal price/earnings multiple. In addition, the shibboleth about moving out of the country, is outdated - anyone who follows the business press is aware that big US companies are starting to move assembly operations out of China, and back to the US.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
You don't seem to even know where you live . These companies are moving to the USA , Mexico and other places but not CANADA . Companies are leaving Canada at a faster pace than new companies coming here can even think of replacing . Open your eyes dude . Look at Stratford , London , Kitchener and Goderich . Then when we do get a plant you condemn them for using frozen pizza but the Gov. applauds them like they are a new God .
I remember being at Queens Park and getting snubed by McFlinty because he was down the road giving GM more money than Ag was even asking for . Where is that plant now ?
Electromotive in London Ontario Canada moved to where ? And not from China .
Our fruit now comes from China not CANADA .
I don't know any of my clients who were Volvo workers from Goderich who don't have at least as good a job now, as they did with Volvo - some retired with an excellent retirement package, some were offered a Volvo job in the US with very-good travel bonuses if they wanted to maintain a residence in Goderich, some got jobs with other firms, almost always good jobs with other firms, and nobody I've met, except protectionist-oriented farmers, has anything bad to say about Volvo at all. In addition, I dispute your claim that companies are leaving Canada at a faster pace than new companies coming here - it may appear that way, but I suggest the evidence is that replacement companies are smaller, more nimble, and more adept at change than the often-dinosaurs which are leaving. If anything, it's farmers who have the dinosaur mentality of trying to protect relics from the past. Farmers, of course, don't understand that farmers, through their ability to demand, and get, unconscionable prices for dairy and poultry products, are one of the principal causes of the inability of business to pay Canadian workers what these workers need to meet any so-called reasonable standard of living. Who knows, if government didn't perpetually cave in to the greed of dairy and poultry farmers, thereby creating a trade-unfriendly environment, perhaps business wouldn't feel the need to move elsewhere, yet farmers are pathologically unable to consider that possibility.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Either you or your neighbor as 90% of farmland still sells to farmers.
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