New environment commissioner clarifies her farm agenda
By Joe Dales, Vice-President, Farms.com
Ontario’s new environment watchdog wants farmers to know she’s not the threat they might fear she is.
Dianne Saxe has taken heat from farm groups and media after a story ran in the National Post which contained some farming comments from the 40-year Toronto-based environmental lawyer.
The article, titled “Meet Ontario’s radical new environment commissioner,” quoted Saxe as saying she wants an end to cheap diesel fuel for farmers.
“We in Ontario, according to the provincial budget, subsidize diesel consumption by $190 million a year,” she said. “That’s not providing better outcomes, it’s not providing income support.”
Alarm bells went off in every county across the province.
OFA president Don McCabe explained the comments reflected a misunderstanding of Ontario agriculture. Grain Farmers chair Mark Brock wrote an open letter to the commissioner, saying he had been across the province “and farmers from all regions are alarmed by comments they have read in the media, about coloured diesel.”
And in a Jan. 15 Toronto Sun column, former MPP John Snobelen (who was a cabinet minister in Mike Harris’s government) wrote that “there are a lot of reasons to be concerned about Dianne Saxe,” beginning with her “shots at farming.”
However in a personal interview yesterday with Farms.com, Saxe assured Ontario’s farmers that, if there is concern she is planning to cause any financial hardship, that “nothing could be further from the truth.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight,” said the keen canoeist, kayaker and cross-country skier. “I’m not interested in taking that $190 million away from farmers. That’s not on the table. But I’ve spoken with many people who simply are not convinced that $190 million is actually getting to our farmers in the most effective way.
“Are there better solutions? Are there better ways of supporting our farm families with that $190 million?
Here is the link to the original National Post Article referenced.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/david-reevely-meet-ontarios-radical-new-environment-commissioner
“Doesn’t it seem possible there might be a better way? Wouldn’t our Ontario farmers want me asking the question, on their behalf, to ensure we are using that money to help family farms, and not large companies and the better-off?”
Indeed, Saxe on Jan. 14 asked that blunt question quite openly on her Twitter account: “Fossil fuel subsidies: For the same money, can (Ontario) treat farmers more fairly and get cleaner air, less climate damage? It’s worth asking.”
Saxe, who says “a mad passion for the natural world” motivated her to become an environmental lawyer, is waiting for answers and input. And she’s heading out on the road to seek those thoughts.
“I am going to meet with the Grain Farmers, I’m going to the Soil and Crop dinner, I’m meeting with OMAFRA. And I will not be looking to take away money from our farmers, or to make it more financially challenging to run a successful farm here in Ontario.
“But I will keep asking the questions that need to be asked.”
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Saxe is the daughter of the late Dr. Morton Shulman, MPP from 1967 to 1975 and renowned Canadian businessman, broadcaster, columnist, coroner and physician. Saxe recalls her father’s crusade to demand use of seatbelts in vehicles when he was Ontario’s chief coroner in the early 1960s. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to live up to the remarkable example my father set.”
Reach Joe Dales at joe.dales@farms.com and 1-877-438-5729, x 5013.
Editors Note: Here is a video interview with Dianne Saxe with TVO The Agenda With Steve Paikin.
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