Q&A with Ontario’s New Ag Minister

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Trevor Jones Talks About His Background, Leadership Style & Priorities

By Liam Nolan

Soon after being named Ontario’s new Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness in late March, Trevor Jones sat down with Better Farming for a discussion on his background, his political goals, and his leadership style.

Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Jones was elected in 2022 and has since held several notable roles at Queen’s Park. He previously served as a parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, as well as the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. In October 2023, he was appointed Deputy House Leader in the Ontario Legislature. By June 2024, Jones took on the role of Associate Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response within the Treasury Board Secretariat.

Former agriculture minister Rob Flack has been reassigned as Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, a role he previously held as Associate Minister. Graydon Smith, formerly the Minister of Natural Resources, has been appointed Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Meanwhile, Lisa Thompson continues to serve as Ontario’s Minister of Rural Affairs, a position she has held since June 2024 following the division of the agriculture ministry into separate portfolios.

Jones was born and raised in Leamington. He studied political science, history, humanities, and law at the University of Windsor. He began his career as a police officer with the OPP, serving for nearly 20 years. In 2018, he took a six-month leave of absence to explore opportunities in the private sector. During this time, he joined Sunset Grown, a greenhouse producer and marketing company based in Leamington.

Q: Trade and tariffs are a concern for many farmers right now. What are your thoughts on the situation?

A: “It’s the biggest worry and concern for our stakeholders, so we must put a lot of energy and thought into it. I always advocate for an intelligence-led approach – listening to the experts and being guided by people with experience, as we re-examine our trade relationships and develop a strategy.

“In the short term, we have some special and enhanced supports in place, like our business risk management program model. In late January, my predecessor Rob Flack announced that we are investing an extra $100 million annually into that fund. If our producers need support, the money is there; it’s set aside, accounted for, and we can protect and preserve our production sectors.

“Long-term, we need to diversify Ontario’s export markets. Trade used to always, by default, go north and south. We are now looking at more options, including opening up provincial trade and enhancing our relationships with the European Union and beyond.

“We have to think about what we should we do to establish new trade routes, new opportunities, and new trading partners.

“Ontario-grown is the standard for quality and food safety, and it is up to us to leverage that strong tradition of excellence.

“People want our goods, and we have to develop ways and make investments to get our products to those markets.”

Q: What other issues are at the top of your list to start?

A: “Innovation, to me, is fascinating, because we have exceptional people, like farmers and producers, who have always been inventive and always been keen to solve problems – but now it’s time to harness that ability, standardize it, and take a very deliberate approach.

“When I was elected in 2022, I was named the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, and I was there for the launch of the Grow Ontario Strategy.

“Grow Ontario is really about strengthening agrifood supply chain stability and increasing agrifood tech and adoption.

“That’s probably my biggest priority, along with attracting and growing Ontario’s agrifood talent. Get people interested in jobs in food production and food processing and all the careers that surround that.

“Let’s continue to invest in innovation. If we can save time and money using things like advanced robotics and AI – harness that technology, use it, and deploy it – it is going to make us more competitive. It’s going to make our products all that more attractive, because we can keep costs down and keep the quality very high.”

Q: Could you tell us about your agricultural background and involvement in the industry?

A: “My pleasure. I was born in Leamington and raised on a small onion farm. My grandmother’s onion farm was across the concession, so my first memories were living in the marshes of Leamington, on an onion farm, and I loved it. It’s idyllic. And so that planted a seed and inspired me.

“I grew up in Leamington, went to high school in Leamington, went to the University of Windsor, studied political science and history and humanities and law, and really enjoyed the public service side of things. So after graduating, I joined the OPP.

“I thought: I love people, I love helping people solve problems, I like restoring calm and order and helping people help themselves. It was a good fit; I had a beautiful career for almost 20 years in the OPP, and I got to travel all around Ontario, including rural Ontario, far north, the Quebec border, the Manitoba border, all around southern Ontario. And during that time, I would always find myself talking to farmers and food producers. I loved learning from them; I loved hearing their stories. Farming and agri-food kept tugging at me.

“After almost 20 years in the OPP, I had that interest in politics, interest in advocacy and a lot of passion about farming and food security and food sovereignty. I thought, maybe I can do something – but I couldn’t do anything political as an OPP officer, so I took a six-month leave of absence and joined a large greenhouse producer and marketing company in Leamington/Kingsville.

“After about one month, I realized I would never going back to policing. I loved what I was doing and advocating for people in my community and food producers. And I learned from some of the best. I got to travel all around North America, learning about food and vegetable production, talking to marketers and retailers, finding out what’s next, what is on the horizon, how we deal with problems like viruses and the risks involved in growing.

“I got into advocacy while I was there, championing producers and greenhouse growers, and that kind of got me into the political world – and that led me to run for office in June of 2022.”

Q: What can farmers expect from your style of leadership?

A: “You could call me a collaborative leader, who likes to follow intelligence-led ways to solve problems, listening to people all the way along. I look forward to learning about their concerns, the issues they face, and finding a new path forward.” BF