For immediate release:

June 23, 2003

Ontario to pay 40 per cent share of BSE bill

Queen’s Park – Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett says the province is injecting much needed compensation into the livestock sector to help producers deal with the impact of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).

Minister of Agriculture and Food Helen Johns agreed to get involved with a national Cattle Assistance Plan after discussing the proposal with key stakeholders including: the Ontario Cattlemen's Association and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.In Ontario, the plan will see the provincial government provide 40 per cent funding with the federal government picking up 60 per cent of an overall price tag expected to be in the range of $88 million.

“It’s important that the federal and provincial governments work together on this to ensure our livestock producers and related industries are able to make it through this BSE crisis,” said Barrett. “I encourage all those impacted by BSE to get their applications in for government support that will help get Ontario’s livestock sector back on its feet again.”

Application forms will soon be available through www.gov.on.ca/omaf or by calling the Ontario Farm Income Disaster Program at 1]877]838]5144.

The program has two components: assistance to compensate producers for declining prices and incentives to processors to sell or move surplus meat products out of inventory.

Producers will be compensated when the price of cattle falls below a reference price.  Payments will be made on a sliding scale designed to encourage producers to sell at the best price possible.  There are no caps on compensation to individual producers.