Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board

Provincial minister says no one told her federal tobacco buyout details

This week, the federal government collected fines and civil compensation from tobacco companies totaling $1.15 billion for orchestrating a cigarette smuggling operation in the 1990s, and promptly passed on a little more than $300 million to hardpressed growers and tobacco belt communities. Provincial agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky says nobody told her about the buyout and she strongly disagrees with the way it is being financed.

Tobacco growers close Simcoe's main street to protest bank move

A hastily organized tobacco protest closed down Hwy 24, the main street of the town of Simcoe Wednesday morning in support of an unnamed farmer being pressed by his lender. The tobacco board didn't organize the protest, says chairman Linda Vandendriessche, who was happy to support it. "He's not the first and he won't be the last," Vandendriessche told Better Farming on Friday.

UPDATED Sunday July 6, 2008 6:26 a.m.