For Immediate Release
April 4, 2007

Barrett bristles at agriculture snub
Critic calls for “immediate” announcement for Norfolk ag. innovation centre

Queen’s Park – “…the research community and tobacco country and fruit and vegetable country to the west of Niagara look forward to an immediate green light for the Simcoe ag innovation centre.”

That was how MPP Toby Barrett summed up his reaction to the latest example of the Ontario Agriculture Minister’s lack of attention to the plight of farmers in South Western Ontario.

In responding at the Legislature to Minister Dombrowsky’s announcement of funding for an agriculture innovation centre in Vineland, Agriculture Critic Barrett made clear that while it’s a step in the right direction, farmers across the rest of Ontario continue to get the short end of the stick.

“While in Vineland, Agriculture Minister Dombrowsky should have explained the $191-million cut in this year’s anti-farmer budget: Last year, she spent $809 million on her ministry plus $278 million on assistance, totalling just under $1.1 billion,” Barrett asserted. “This year, she’s spending $876 million on her ministry plus only $20 million on assistance; that totals $896 million or $191 million less—no exit dollars for tobacco; no RMP dollars for cash crops; $258 million less for farm safety net programs.”

The Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP went on to underline the fact that while dollars are being spent in Vineland, a Norfolk area agriculture innovation centre proposal continues to be ignored by the Minister years after it was first initiated by local farm stakeholders.

“…there has been a funding request for an ag innovation centre at Simcoe, at the University of Guelph horticultural research station,” leveled Barrett. “As thousands of acres of tobacco exit the industry, we have to have that announcement immediately.”

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: 1-800-903-8629