by SUSAN MANN
Ontario Premier and Agriculture Minister Kathleen Wynne is on the hot seat for her decision to not tour flood-damaged farms across Ontario.
“Where are you?” Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Ernie Hardeman asks her in a July 12 letter where he talked about flood-damaged farms near the Ottawa area, the Bradford Marsh and Chatham-Kent. “I find it disturbing that there is no evidence you have been out meeting with farmers, walking the fields and seeing the damage first hand.”
Hardeman was touring six or seven farms in Chatham-Kent Monday and had, in the letter, invited Wynne to join him. He also encouraged her to visit farmers in eastern Ontario and in the marsh in the next few days.
He says in the letter he has already visited farmers with rain-destroyed crops near Ottawa and the marsh.
About the crops in Chatham-Kent, Hardeman says “there’s some real damage done. There are acres and acres of tomatoes that have already been completely written off” and can’t be harvested. For peas, some fields were partly harvested but had just become too wet so harvest couldn’t continue.
Most of the corn was tall enough when the floods hit that it will survive and still produce a crop, he says. But some corn plants were too small and were actually drowned out.
The problems in Chatham-Kent were caused by more rain than would normally be expected. But there also “seems to be a big problem with the municipal drainage in the area that needs to be looked at,” he says. “The drainage ditches are not functioning as effectively as they used to. They haven’t been cleaned out over the years.”
In response to Hardeman’s letter, Gabrielle Gallant, Wynne’s agriculture ministry spokesperson, says by email this year has been unusually wet while last year was unusually dry. “That’s why we have a range of programs, like risk management, production insurance and AgriStability, which provide support to farmers through challenges like these.”
Officials with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and Agricorp are working with farmers wherever they have concerns. “I know that Agricorp is working closely with producers affected by flooding and that claims are being expedited so that we can get producers the support they likely need as quickly as possible,” she explains.
For Bradford Marsh growers the government has also requested the federal government launch an assessment to determine if the joint federal/provincial AgriRecovery framework can be activated. But “we have not yet received a response,” she says.
The province did listen to officials from the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury who asked for and were granted an emergency declaration under the Drainage Act so dyke repairs could happen immediately.
The Horlings Dyke in the area broke twice in less than a month this spring flooding 130 acres of carrot and onion land. Town officials need the emergency declaration so they can begin repairs right away. Otherwise it would take two to three years to get the necessary permissions and permits from various agencies to do repairs.
“We will work with farmers and producers right across Ontario to support them through challenging times,” Gallant says.
Asked if Wynne planned to tour flood-damaged farms, Gallant says the most important thing is “ensuring that farmers are being supported and ministry officials are working with producers and Agricorp officials to ensure this support is being provided.”
Hardeman says it’s important for Wynne to get out and see the damage first hand “and find out what the real problem was, whether it could be prevented and whether we could do more to prevent it from happening again. Just paying the bill doesn’t solve the problem.” BF
Comments
SHE IS DOING THE RIGHT THING ,IT IS ABOUT TIME FARMERS QUIT LOOKING FOR TAX PAYERS HARD EARNED MONEY !!!! LIKE I HAVE POINTED OUT BEFORE FARMERS NEED TO GET OFF THE WANTING LIST AND OPERATE THERE BUSINESS LIKE THE REST OF US ,BY BUYING INSURANCE AND IF THAT DOES NOT COVER IT ,THEN SELL SOME ASSETS OR BORROW THE MONEY!!!!!!!!!GOVERNMENTS NEED TO STOP GIVING FREE TAX PAYERS MONEY TO FARMERS THAT ARE MILLIONARES AND PAY LITTLE OR NO TAXES. MAKE THEM OPERATE LIKE THE REST OF US IN SMALL BUSINESS,I CANNOT SAY THIS ENOUGH .REGARD,S BILL DENBY ,LITTLE BRITIAN
So let's give it to wind and solar companies who rape and pillage the ontario tax payer . Mr. Denby has a point but is not looking at the bigger picture . I remember being at Queens Park and being snubbed by McFlinty because he was away giving an auto plant more money than what the farmers needed and were asking for .
In Ag we have to look a little further at things like what our COP is here and why our price for our products are not the same . Why US grain is priced so much higher than Ontario grains . Why inputs cost more here than across the border . If nothing else I think SM has really brought to light the fact that things cost so much more here to produce and we are getting hosed by big companies and our retailers . Or is it some Gov. agency in between ?
A farmers worth is only on paper and can vanish very quickly so you are right today to say farmers are millionares but that could change . Also don't forget that there is debt there also . We need a level playing field with our competition and that is mainly the US . We need to compete with the US Farm Bill which is helping them and hurting us . Now don't think for a minute that the US consumer understands the US farm bill either . Much of that is for food stamps and the average person over there does not understand that . They just think it is all money going directly to farmers which is wrong . Many politicians here do not know or understand that either .
As for Hardeman and Wynne it is nothing more than political banter . Best way to discribe it is like two kittens play fighting . Now the gas plant scandal was more of a fight because so many rats and the leader jumped ship .
I am not sure I can agree with you on every point here Mr. Denby. One thing that makes agriculture different than "all the rest of you in business" is not having the ability to set price.
Case in point recently in your area gas went from 1.14 /l to 1.34 in less that 24 hrs. Have you ever had agricultural commodity pricing jump that fast?
I don't really think you have as a price taker. If you had the CBOT would have remembered that kind of short and SM would never find reason in the pricing formula for dramatic change.
When you refer to "the rest of us in small business" it sounds inclusive meaning I thought you got of out of the chaos of agriculture?
Repairing Dyke's, cleaning drainage ditches, more tiling...its almost a guaranteed recipe for a drought next year.
With the gas plant stuff directly involving Wynn, McGinty et troop are you sure you really want to wave this flag? As minister of Ag she does not want to hike out to Bradford to look at flooded marsh much less find an address? With your new found retired time makes it sound like you were at the parade too.
Driving around looking at this, that, or the other, is, for any CEO, mostly a waste of time which could be far-better spent doing something else. Reporting damage and making recommendations, is what a staff is for, and Wynne, like any CEO, should be relying on his/her staff rather than flitting around like a bumblebee all over the place. Former Ag Minister, Helen Johns, figured it out - instead of wasting time driving around, she'd pick up the phone and phone people to find out what was going on. Hardeman obviously doesn't have a lot else to do, Ms. Wynne does. Even though I'm not a supporter of any political cause, Hardeman is wasting his time and ours - I'd sooner have a politician spend his/her time using the time and talents of his/her staff wisely, rather than fall all over themselves to never miss a photo opportunity.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
You think Wynne is busy . Yes she is busy being driven around grand standing . Jeez get with it .
It just really goes to show that it is not the person out front that matters , it is the people behind those persons who make all the decisions .
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