For immediate release:
March 23, 2006

More blame game from the Minister of Agriculture

Queen’s Park—MPP Toby Barrett took the Minister of Agriculture to task over the farm income crisis during Question Period today at Queen’s Park.

“Thousands of farm families are anticipating good news at 4 o’clock in this year’s budget,” Barrett told the Minister.  “Will your budget meet their expectations, or have you again failed the farm families of Ontario?”

“Cash crop, beef, tobacco, hort, dairy heifer export, cull cow, even bee keepers are presently in crisis,” Barrett continued.  “There’s not a single commodity that’s either not in crisis, anticipating a looming crisis or, at minimum, worried.”

The Minister of Agriculture responded by blaming the federal government for the crisis being experienced by farmers of all sectors.

“It’s unbelievable,” Barrett said outside of the Legislature.  “She seems to think the hundreds of farmers parked outside our doorstep came to the wrong Parliament.”

Barrett asked the Minister if the budget would present a plan for risk management, BSE equity replacement, self-directed risk insurance, and the tobacco farmer buy-out.

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For more information please contact MPP Toby Barrett at (519) 428-0446, 1-800-903-8629, (416) 325-8404