Artisanal cheese, please

Thursday, November 6, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

Promoting and encouraging innovative local food projects is one of the priorities assigned to Toronto Beaches-East York MPP Arthur Potts, the parliamentary assistant to the provincial agriculture minister.

The specific responsibilities for the parliamentary assistants to Ontario Cabinet ministers were outlined in mandate letters from Cabinet ministers and made public on the Ontario government’s website earlier this week. It’s the second set of mandate letters the government released this fall. The first was the mandate letters Premier Kathleen Wynne wrote to her Cabinet ministers.

The government posted both sets of mandate letters online “to show in detail how it will carry out its plans to build Ontario up,” a Nov. 4 government news release says. This is the first time the mandate letters were made public in Ontario.

Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal says in his letter to Potts the parliamentary assistant’s specific responsibilities include promotion and encouraging innovative local food projects “that celebrate the rich diversity of food produced and made in Ontario” and working with ministers and partners to continue engaging with rural stakeholders to deliver effective programs, such as the Rural Economic Development program, and services to rural areas.

“I’ve also expressed an interest in growing different sectors of agriculture,” such as promoting artisanal foods, Potts says. For example, “we’re looking for ways to make Ontario a world-class place to make artisanal cheese. We’re going to work in that sector somewhat and identify barriers to cheese production” that if removed might make it easier for provincial cheese makers to compete with their Quebec, French and Italian counterparts.

Similar to the mandate letters for the Cabinet ministers, the parliamentary assistants’ mandate letters contain references to agricultural projects in other ministries besides agriculture. And Potts will be working with other parliamentary assistants on matters related to agriculture.

“One of the great moves forward for us will be to break down the silo mentality that every ministry only has its own function,” he says.

Potts says it may seem strange to have a downtown Toronto MPP as part of the agriculture ministry but he can introduce some valuable ideas to the ministry, such as “connecting downtown people with country people in a way that helps complete the circle.”

It’s important to keep consumer matters at the forefront at all times “in what we grow, how we process” and in what’s offered to buyers so they’re buying local products, which is so important, Potts says.

He’s delighted by the opportunity to work in the agriculture ministry. “We know how important this file is to the premier. I think the premier has adopted a wonderful balance between a rural minister in Jeff Leal and an urban parliamentary assistant.”

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales says he hasn’t read all of the parliamentary assistant letters but he has met with Potts.

“In general the parliamentary assistants’ mandates are to support the mandates of the ministers, which is good and it’s kind of nice to see that in writing,” he says, adding he doesn’t have any concerns from the letters he has seen.

“At the end of the day the goal is to get done what the ministry’s supposed to get done during the term,” Wales says.

Steve Peters, executive director of the processors’ organization Food and Beverage Ontario, says the letters show “we need to work with a number of ministries to make sure that all the agendas align and we’re not working in ministerial silos and we’re working together.”

Some priorities in the other letters include:

• MPP Lou Rinaldi, PA to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Ted McMeekin, was asked to ensure there is an appropriate rural and agriculture focus in the reviews of the growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe area and the Greenbelt plan.
• MPP Amrit Mangat, PA to Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray was asked to help work to introduce a strengthened Great Lakes protection bill.
• MPP Eleanor McMahon, PA to Natural Resources and Forestry Minister Bill Mauro, is working with him to facilitate a review of Ontario’s broader wetland strategy to strengthen wetland policies with an objective to stop the net loss of wetlands. BF