Provincial agricultural growth committee to release report this year

Thursday, February 5, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

A new committee established to give Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal advice and recommendations on how the agricultural industry can double its annual growth rate and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020 is slated to release a report later this year.

Leal says in an email from his press adviser the committee will deliver a report on its progress and recommendations at the 2015 Premier’s Summit on Agri-Food. The committee has already met for the first time last week and will meet again this spring.

“I look forward to receiving advice from this committee as we work to support and grow the agri-food sector,” he says.

The agriculture ministry named deputy minister Deb Stark and Ontario Pork chair Amy Cronin as co-chairs of the Agri-Food Growth Steering Committee.

The challenge to double the agricultural industry’s growth rate and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020 was issued by Premier Kathleen Wynne in 2013.

In its Feb. 3 press release, the agriculture ministry says the committee will provide advice on growth opportunities and on the development of a growth measurement system.

Other members of the committee are:

• Ted Bilyea, president of a consulting firm and chair of the board of directors for the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute.
• Jim Brandle, CEO of Vineland Research and Innovation.
• Christian von Twickel, executive vice president of Dr. Oetker Canada Inc.
• Norm Beal, president and CEO of Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery and executive director of Food and Beverage Ontario.
• Scott Graham, chair of Egg Farmers of Ontario and an egg and cash crop farmer.
• Jamison Steeve, executive director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity. BF