Agriculture ignored in Ontario budget says NDP ag critic

Monday, February 29, 2016

by SUSAN MANN

The agricultural industry was unjustly ignored in the provincial government’s 2016 budget brought down Feb. 25, says New Democratic Party agriculture critic John Vanthof.

“Overall this government talks a lot bigger game about agriculture than they actually deliver,” says Vanthof, the MPP for Temiskaming-Cochrane.

Vanthof questioned Premier Kathleen Wynne in the Legislature Monday about why the government didn’t raise the cap on the Ontario business risk management program as commodity groups have requested. The Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition had asked the government to increase the $100 million annual cap by $25 million a year over three years starting with this year.

The risk management program is the “one program that will directly ensure the growth of jobs in the agri-food sector in Ontario,” Vanthof says. The premier has challenged the agri-food industry to create 120,000 new jobs by 2020. “If you want to create jobs in agriculture, you need a solid base and farmers are that base,” he notes. “Farmers have consistently told us, and told the premier, to take the cap of the risk management program.”

Vanthof says he’s also concerned about the cut to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) budget. It’s being chopped by $27 million, or three per cent, to $916 million from $943 million.

OMAFRA is running a “pretty bare bones ship,” he says. “There’s not a whole lot of fat out there. If you’re going to take $25-$30 million out of the budget, it’s going to hurt somewhere.”

And he’s disappointed the government chose to not continue offering the Local Food Fund. The three-year, $30 million program designed to support innovative local food projects wrapped up this year.

Vanthof says there were lots of press releases and photo opportunities when the Local Food Fund was announced three years ago. Usually governments will continue programs that are working and that have proven value, he notes. However, the Local Food Fund was discontinued because “the government is more interested in the show than in actually doing the work.”

He also didn’t see any additional money in the budget to extend production insurance to commodities that currently aren’t eligible for insurance under the program. Vanthof says the NDP fully supported the government’s passing of the Agriculture Insurance Act last year.

However, “to actually make this program have any benefit to farmers, there has to be some money put into it so you can actually insure other commodities,” he explains. BF