Tobacco, Caledonia require government action

Early last Wednesday morning, I watched a convoy of ten ATV’s head South on the Main Street of Caledonia and then West on Haldimand County Sixth Line. As the bumper stickers say - “Caledonia: No Sherriff – No Law”.

And at the Delhi Tobacco Warehouse – the Monday before – I joined a 600 strong farmer rally in the parking lot. The signs read – “Tobacco Farmers in Crisis”.

Whether it be East or West, much of our rural and small town locale is on the brink of a socio-economic meltdown.

Locally, and traditionally, we don’t ask much of government – if anything we feel over-governed and overtaxed. But when there is a real need as in Caledonia and in tobacco country, we expect our state institutions and resources to be there to back us up. And certainly not turn tail and walk away, for example, by shutting down provincial licence bureaus in towns like Caledonia and Delhi.

During my travels I also see similar demise in much of the rest of Rural and Northern Ontario.

Ontario’s hinterland needs a strong economic plan to deal with the over 120,000 manufacturing job losses over the last two years, mill closures in Northern and Eastern Ontario, and farmers who have been abandoned by recent government policies.

However, to date – despite repeated calls from business groups, labour groups, farmers, municipal representatives, and opposition parties – Mr. McGuinty has not stepped forward with any plan to help rural Ontarians hurt by economic crisis. Similarly there is still no plan for tobacco or Caledonia or the future of OPG Nanticoke.

At last week’s municipal conference, John Tory put it this way – “I am definitely not from the camp that says that it is somehow okay for rural Ontario to slowly decline and that ultimately having everyone living in the big cities will be satisfactory. Our big cities must be healthy and growing, but that health, indeed their very sustainability depends on a stable, healthy, rural Ontario.”

If you don’t accept the premise that unique, specific measures and equal attention to meeting the challenges of rural Ontario are necessary to stop the decline, then you get further decline such as that we have seen these past three years.

The same mentality which fails to produce a meaningful practical plan for people hard hit by manufacturing and forestry job losses, or the standoff in Caledonia, produces a failure when it comes to meaningful practical and reliable help for farmers.

If you are a government that doesn’t recognize in your funding allocations that the public transit of rural Ontario is roads and bridges, then you will also fail to recognize the need for special provisions for rural schools or native standoffs.

We need to sustain and build up our rural way of life because it is part of the foundation and tradition of this province. Rural Ontario isn’t a problem, it’s a big part of the solution.

Making our rural communities part of the solution requires a sense of urgency, an acceptance of responsibility and a long term plan, none of which I see coming from Queen’s Park today.

March 22nd we to return to Queens Park to debate the budget. I will see that these issues continue to be raised and – eventually – addressed for the benefit of our area.