Feds offer up clarification on tobacco buyout
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
by BETTER FARMING STAFF
“If you take federal money you have to agree to leave the sector and not grow again,” Tom Shenston, director general, strategic policy, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, told Better Farming on Wednesday morning. “There are no strings attached to what you do with the money.” Growers who take the buyout won’t be expected to tear out this year’s crop, he added.
Shenston was clarifying some confusing information from last Friday’s tobacco buyout announcement.
During the announcement, local MP and minister of citizenship and immigration Diane Finley told producers gathered in the auction in Delhi the buyout was open to tobacco quota holders who wish to continue to produce tobacco as well as those who want to exit farming or want to transition to something else. In his speech announcing the buyout at the same podium, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Gerry Ritz said producers must get out and stay out of tobacco production in order to get the buyout from the quota system. An exiting producer can sell his or her tobacco farm to someone who is getting in or staying in.
Shortly after Shenston called, Better Farming received a telephone call from Finley’s press secretary, Tim Vail. Vail agreed with Shenston that the money is available only to producers who exit the industry.
Shenston said he has spoken briefly with an unnamed person working in the office of Leona Dombrowsky, Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He said the federal government hopes Dombrowsky will come across with monies to match two thirds of the federal spending on the tobacco buyout. The federal government also wants the province to institute a provincial licensing scheme that will ensure that tobacco that is grown in the province doesn’t escape the excise tax system.
On Friday, Dombrowsky said the province did not have plans to contribute to the buyout as had been suggested by the federal government. “I have made it very clear (to Ritz) that Ontario’s position is that it is tobacco users and not the taxpayers of Ontario who should be funding an exit strategy,” she said, adding that this approach was also recommended by the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board. Dombrowsky also criticized Ritz for suggesting the province also kick in funds without first discussing the approach with her.
As recently as yesterday, Dombrowsky told the London Free Press that the monies are better spent on health care than on buying out tobacco farmers. BF