Farm problems identified – we need solutions

As long as I can remember, winter has been the time for farm meetings – initially with my father and grandfather, and now as MPP and Agriculture Critic.

Much of Rural Ontario is seeing hard times. The prosperity of our communities is tied directly to the prosperity of our farms. Locally, we’ve witnessed first-hand that when our farmers sneeze, our small towns catch a cold. Delhi’s economic decline shows that everybody is impacted when farmers are in trouble.

Challenges identified at recent farm meetings include Canada-US trade, competition from emerging economies, and Canada’s large production capacity. Simply put, Canadian farmers produce much more than Canadian consumers can use. It’s not surprising that our farmers are exporting roughly 40 per cent of their crops – making them increasingly dependent on the uncertain export market.

Export dependency is being threatened by increased pressure from emerging low-cost producers like Argentina and Brazil, and highly subsidized competitors like the US and the European Union. In recent years the appreciation of the Canadian dollar equals the equivalent of a 43 per cent decline in prices relative to the US market.

Currently the Canadian agriculture sector is facing a severely depressed financial condition which is expected to continue well into the future. With the dramatic downturn in the business, individual producers have been faced with increasing debt levels, business restructuring, and rationalization. The effect is loss of employment rippling through the entire supply chain.

As far as I’m concerned, the problems have been identified. Now we need to work toward solutions.

Some will recall the 2003 provincial election, when Dalton McGuinty promised to make Agriculture a lead Ministry if he became Premier. Indeed, this could have helped Ontario’s farmers and rural communities – if the promise had been kept. We’ve all witnessed the annual budget cuts coupled with ad hoc financial announcements. Often the announcements are designed to maximize press coverage, but minimize the support going to our farmers. This has to stop.

It’s not all doom and gloom in Ontario’s farm sector. Supply managed commodities are doing well, and aren’t forced to plead with government for financial support.

Supply management works like a three-legged stool. The three legs are: effective import controls, production controls and the ability to set price. If you take out one of those legs, the stool collapses, along with those portions of our rural economy.

Every member of the PC Caucus has signed the Farmgate5 petition supporting the protection of supply management. But the supply managed commodities are worried. At present, 31 government MPPs – including the Deputy Premier and the Finance Minister – have not signed the petition.

To shore up support for supply management, I submitted a motion last week to the Finance Committee urging the Finance Minister to sign on his support – but the Liberal MPPs on the committee strangely voted it down.

On a side note, the Liberal MPPs also voted against a motion asking the provincial Finance Minister to fund the province’s 40 per cent share of a tobacco exit-strategy.

I’m looking forward to seeing results from recent federal government consultation, and farm organization recommendations for the agriculture sector. While the federal government has a pivotal role in ensuring the success of Ontario’s farmers, the McGuinty government must be part of the process – and part of any progress.