NFA News

May 12, 2005. 08:07 PM

Agriculture ministry not cut, officials say
Apparent 23% cut counted last year's one-time payments, ministry explains


TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

GUELPH - Ministry of Agriculture officials were in full damage control mode yesterday, insisting opposition leaders and media were wrong to jump on numbers that appeared to show a 23 per cent cut in operational funding.

That number appeared on a page in Wednesday's Liberal budget showing ministries that had either flatlined or had their funding cut. Agriculture topped the list, dropping from $733 million last year to $564 this year.

But ministry spokeswoman Suzanne van Bommel released a statement yesterday saying the $733 million in 2004-05 included one-time relief funding for beleaguered farmers last year and was not part of the core funding.

Operational funding, she said, will actually increase to $564 million from $549 million for 2005-06.

That came as a welcome relief to local farmers who watched the numbers Wednesday afternoon in bewilderment.

"I thought, we're not going to have anything," said dairy farmer Ian Harrop, president of the Wellington Federation of Agriculture. "We're going to have a couple of cars and three people working for the ministry."

While Harrop accepted the ministry's explanation, officials from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture were not so trusting, demanding an emergency meeting with Agriculture Minister Steve Peters yesterday to confirm Ontario was not cutting support to farmers.

But even if the budget did jump by $15 million, that would not even cover the rise in inflation, said federation president Ron Bonnett.

"We had hoped for some kind of mention that there is an ongoing financial crisis and that they need to give us some assistance," Bonnett said. "There were other key issues we didn't hear about, like streamlining regulations for protecting source water."

Sorbara did acknowledge Wednesday night that the agriculture sector had suffered "real serious body blows" in the past year.

That has included a fall in world grain prices and the closure of the U.S. border to Canadian cattle due to mad cow fears.

Those were areas the ministry addressed with emergency funding last year and will continue to do so if the need arises, Peters said. He also said his ministry would spend $3 million for a research chair at the University of Guelph.

Harrop, who represents 1,450 farmers in Wellington County, acknowledged that $15 million does not sound like a significant boost in funding.

But after more than a decade of cuts to the ministry, any upgrade in funding comes as a relief, he said.

"You can't always say it's not enough," he said. "But we have to stop kicking the cash cow. It's certainly positive to see some money come back into (the ministry). It's really been taxed in terms of providing service. It had become so stretched that it had become invisible."

But Waterloo-Wellington Conservative MPP Ted Arnott said he was unimpressed with the Liberals' take on agriculture.

"They need to spend more on research and get on the cutting edge of trends," he said. "There was some reference to the University of Guelph chair, which I would welcome. But it seems like kind of a token gesture."

by TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

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