Conservative MPPs want addition to proposed local food act: a tax credit for farmers who donate food

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Farmers who donate excess produce to their local food bank would be able to get a tax credit for 25 per cent of the wholesale value of the food if an amendment to the proposed Ontario Local Food Act is passed.

Two Progressive Conservative MPPs proposed the amendment, Ernie Hardeman of Oxford, the agriculture, food and rural affairs critic, and Bob Bailey of Sarnia Lambton. They announced the amendment during a press conference at Queen’s Park Wednesday.

Hardeman says the proposal would cost the government $750,000 per year to implement. “For every $1 that it cost government, it would be $7 worth of food that would be going into the food bank system,” he says.

Farmers would be able to get a non-refundable tax credit. “When they file their income tax they would get 25 per cent of the wholesale price of the food they sent to the food bank,” Hardeman explains. The proposal would also permit unused tax credits to be carried forward up to five years.

The amendment is modeled on Bailey’s private member’s bill, Fighting Hunger with Local Food Act. The bill would no longer be needed if the amendment is adopted.

The proposed Local Food Act has been referred to the Ontario Legislature’s standing committee on social policy. Hardeman chairs the committee. The Conservatives will be proposing their amendment when the Local Food Act goes to committee, likely sometime this fall.

Hardeman says their chances are pretty good the amendment will be adopted. Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne has been “supportive of adding something like this to it.”

Hardeman says currently the proposed Local Food Act does nothing to increase consumption of local food outside of government buildings. “We also want to put something in there that actually is going to make some things happen.”

In their press release, Hardeman and Bailey say food banks are struggling to provide food for those in need. But at the same time Ontario farmers dispose of or plough back into their fields more than 25 million pounds of fresh, nutritious food annually. This food is healthy, tasty and fresh but isn’t selected by grocers for sale because of cosmetic reasons, such as size, shape or colour. Many farmers cannot afford the additional costs to collect, process and deliver their unsold produce to local food banks even though they want to.

The Conservative caucus has already announced another amendment to the proposed legislation to increase food literacy by requiring mandatory food education for students in every grade. BF