It was a glorious spring-like day in Toronto as I made my way to Queens Park to listen to the provincial government’s Throne Speech. It was the kind of day that fills one with hope- hopes that are often dashed by bad weather to come. After being battered by a recession Ontarians were looking to their government to show leadership on many fronts in their communities, from health care layoffs to secure family supporting jobs. Farm families have been looking towards this government to show they have some sort of plan or strategy to address the many issues facing farmers. They will, it seems, be sadly disappointed. During the speech the Green Energy Act was lauded, with no mention of the problems it is causing in rural Ontario. There was a promise to create some sort of arms length agency to review selling off our public assets, a promise that means the government can blame someone else when they try to sell the furniture and fixtures in order to pay for such lavish spending as the millions of dollars given away to insiders at EHealth. And no acknowledgement of the pressures small town health care providers and hospitals are facing.
For farmers there were just two short references in the Throne Speech, this despite the fact that food and food production is one of the two most important sectors of our economy. Agri-food was mentioned in passing in a kind of afterthought sentence. Here’s what the Throne Speech said “Your government will also support growth and expansion in our agrifood sector by working through Ontario's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to create new opportunities to buy local food, and open up new markets outside the province -- because the world needs the good things that grow in Ontario.” That’s it. Buried in reference after reference to manufacturing, mining, financial services; the life and community sustaining role of agriculture is recognized with a vague promise to do something, somehow, sometime. But no plan, no strategy, not even a review of what policies are working and what are not nor a sense of how Ontario farmers will be able to move from needing off-farm income to get by, or who will be our farmers of the future. And while local food was mentioned as a buzz word, there was no recognition of the need to support the infrastructure it is dependent upon such as local abattoirs and butchers.
The new Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has a lot of hope and goodwill on her shoulders. She has a choice she can make – will she chart a course that is new and fresh and create a positive legacy, or will she simply be a caretaker for the policies that by any empirical measure are failing farmers and ultimately all Ontarians. I remain hopeful, but the clock is ticking.
I happened to run into the Minister outside the Chamber after the Throne Speech. She asked me what I made of the speech. In all honesty I struggled for an answer because I remain hopeful of her personally, but at the same time, all the signs and my experience with her government lead me to fear that those hopes will be dashed. The Throne Speech is meant to be the blueprint of the government’s priorities and vision. As I spoke to the Minister it was running through my mind that the only other reference to farmers and food was a historical one, as if farming has had its day, but its time is done. You see there were all kinds of references to plans and strategies for car production, mining chromite and other issues to meet the future, but farm families and farmers are being replaced by ‘agrifood sector’ in the language of government.
In the three and a half years I have served as the elected head of the National Farmers Union in Ontario I have come to learn that the language government uses is revealing. As I end my time in my position I see far more frequently a government abandonment of terms like farmers and farm families for terms like agribusiness. Unless government develops a strategy and plan that has as its central core the financial well-being of a stable and wide-spread farming community it will not just be the word ‘farmer’ that will be disappearing, but the very back bone of rural Ontario’s communities and economy.
Source : National Farmers Union-Ontario