RMP slammed in fiscal commission report

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Don Drummond doesn’t understand Risk Management says OFA president

photo: Mark Wales

Comments

Any time any program, such as RMP, attempts to put a "base" under a market, it gets capitalized back into asset values, thereby creating higher costs, and by defintion, less efficiency.

It's one of the most basic principles of economics, and one which Drummond completely understands, but one which Wales, apparently, does not.

The debate is moot anyway - Livestock producers, after seeing this year's RMP premiums, are deciding to do what 50% of grain farmers originally entrolled in RMP have already done, and that's avoid RMP like the plague in the future.

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

How do we put the genie back in the bottle. Supply management farmers now have 27 % equity buying lang . now cash crop farmers think they should too. blamethis on baby boomer farmers. Where was all this advanced leadership training?????

The root of the problem is that farmers believe in the concept of "enshrined-exceptionalism" which means that they have historically demanded, and often obtained, favourable rules which don't apply to anyone else - for example, 200% tariff barriers protecting dairy and poultry farmers, special labour laws, special laws involving farm machinery on public roads, the ability to file income taxes on the cash system, property taxation exemptions, and so on, and so forth.

I seriously doubt even the so-called Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program delves into the problems created by this "we're farmers, the rules don't apply to us" concept at all, except possibly about how to perpetuate its existence.

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
(519) 482 - 3244

Agriculture was largely absent from the Drummond and I beleive for 2 reasons.

1. Drummond does not appear to understand the first thing about agriculture so he chose to stay away from the topic. That would indicate intelligence in decision making.

2. McGuinty ordered Drummond to prepare a report with defined parameters. Rural Ontario is very unhappy with McGuinty as he has shown nothing but disrepect to farmers for the past 9 years.

3. The Drummond report is nothing short of releasing trial ballons to watch public reactions. The government is under no obligation to implement any of the suggestions. The report is nothing short of a masterful marketing strategy.

Therefore I will make a prediction in regards to agriculture in the next budget.

McGuinty will cut the Rural support program in regards to farmland taxation. The province will implement a full rate of taxation on farmland as the public deems the 25% tax rate as a subsidy. The phase will start in 2013.

I believe they have made an assessment that farmers are in a position to pay more municipal taxes as reflected in land rental values coupled with high commodity prices.

The province will implement a full rate of taxation on farmland as the public deems the 25% tax rate as I HOPE NOT. dUMB ASSED GREEDY FARMERS HIGH RENTS HIGH LAND COST.

FARMERS HAVE BECOME STUPID hOW WILL WE STOP THIS TAX DEAL , FARMERS TOOK THE RENT BAIT

And who do you think will represent the farmer's case?

There is no leadership in agriculture. There has been no leadership in agriculture for a long time.

It was the OFA that proposed the 25% tax in 1996 and the government was more than happy to accept the recommendation.

The government did envision the consquences of such a move at the time but the farmers' groups insisted.

Let's see. With the Drummond report, will the government anger the teachers' union and the health care workers? NO.

Will the government step outside the Drummond report and anger 30,000 farmers? Yes and the public will give a sigh of relief.

Farmers have ZERO clout as they have ZERO leadership.

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