For Immediate Release
September 18, 2006

McGuinty broken promises breaking backs of farmers
Stall tactics and delays keep farmers far from promised money

Peterborough – PC Agriculture Critic Toby Barrett is joining Party Leader John Tory today in calling on Dalton McGuinty to end the waiting game for Ontario’s farmers.

“Ontario farmers have been waiting four months now for Dalton McGuinty to announce Ontario’s participation in the federal initiative for a more accurate inventory valuation system through CAIS – a move that would provide additional funding and start to flow the funds immediately,” said Barrett. “Instead of moving ahead to get needed support dollars to our farmers, Mr. McGuinty and Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky continue to play politics – they were a no-show at the Outdoor Farm Show, and we’ll just have to wait and see what they have in store for the Plowing Match.”

Canadian Agriculture Income Stabilization (CAIS) payments reflecting the new valuation system have already flowed in BC, Sakatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Quebec has been using the better valuation system for three years. Ontario government participation would mean over $100 million in funding for Ontario farmers.

“Dalton McGuinty promised that he would make the Ministry of Agriculture a ‘Lead’ Ministry,” said Tory. “The only ‘lead’ we see from the Ministry of Agriculture is that it will ‘lead’ us to the day where farming, farm families and farming communities no longer have any hope or any future in the Province of Ontario.”

Tory and Barrett made the comments at a Peterborough-area farm, near where the annual International Plowing Match will be held starting tomorrow.

“I don’t know a sector that isn’t either in a crisis or on the verge of one - cash crop, beef, tobacco, horticulture, cull-cow, dairy heifer export, deer and elk, and even beekeepers and yet McGuinty and Dombrowsky continue to drag their heels,” Barrett continued. “This government is only good at three things- study, stall, and study.”

“We know the money is already beginning to flow in other provinces. What has been taking Ontario so long? The McGuinty government’s indecision on whether to participate in the federal government's improved valuation system has delayed farmers getting tens of millions of relief when they have been battered by tough times,” said Tory.

Tory also called on Dalton McGuinty to match the federal government’s move to defer CAIS overpayments and interest until January, as has been done in other provinces to help farmers.

“The government’s continued refusal to allow overpayment relief, creates an uneven playing field for Ontario farmers compared to their counterparts in other provinces,” concluded Barrett.
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For more information, MPP Toby Barrett at: (519) 428-0446, (416) 325-8404, or 1-800-903-8629