Farm leaders mull premier's mandate letters
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
by SUSAN MANN
Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Jeff Leal says one of the most critical parts of his letter from Premier Kathleen Wynne outlining ministry priorities for the next four years is the challenge for the sector to double its growth and create 120,000 new jobs by 2020.
The premier issued the ‘mandate’ letters to all Cabinet ministers Sept. 25. She released the job creation and growth challenge to the agri-food sector in the fall of 2013. Leal says it’s a “very ambitious and very important target. We think, as a government, that the agri-food sector offers great promise in terms of new investment and new job opportunities and that is buttressed by the $40 million food processing fund, the rural economic development fund and the eastern Ontario and southwestern Ontario development funds.”
In releasing the mandate letters, Ontario farm leaders and the public have for the first time ever been given a glimpse of what Ontario’s premier considers to be important for her Cabinet ministers to work on during the next four years. Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales says the provincial ministers always get a letter outlining “their marching orders” from the premier but this is the first time “we’re actually getting to see them.” Similar letters have been released publically in other provinces.
Ontario Pork chair Amy Cronin says farm leaders who sit on the agricultural commodity groups president’s council have been aware of the premier’s priorities since “she was (agriculture) minister a year ago.” But it has taken some time for farm leaders to understand “what it is that the government is looking for from industry (in meeting the growth and job creation challenge) and how industry could help them achieve their goals.”
Wynne’s letter to Leal has five sections: supporting the growth of the agri-food sector, ensuring the sustainability of agriculture, providing business supports to farmers, expanding agriculture in the north and fostering vibrant rural economies. But Leal says the “overarching issue is the 120,000 new jobs by 2020” and all of the priorities outlined in the letter’s five sections play a crucial role in achieving that target. For example, the letter talks about expanding agriculture in northern Ontario “where we could look at raising of cattle, processing of cattle in northeastern Ontario,” he says.
In a Sept. 26 press release, Beef Farmers of Ontario president Bob Gordanier says they congratulate Wynne and Leal for their commitment to work with farmers “on a visionary plan to bring significant swaths of Crown and private land (in northern Ontario) into agricultural development.”
Leal says he has already been working with industry stakeholders on meeting the premier’s challenge. “We’re busy and we’ve got our sleeves rolled up and we’re working non-stop” in looking for ways to meet the challenge.
Cronin says Ontario Pork “gave some careful consideration to the premier’s challenge as we went through our strategic planning process throughout the late spring, early summer.” The strategic plan contains ideas for creating jobs or growing the economy but not necessarily both at the same time. “Sometimes it’s one or the other,” she says. “We also know this is a challenge that goes out to the entire value chain.”
Difficulties in the pork value chain, such as the bankruptcy of a major processor, Quality Meat Packers earlier this year, have affected “a little bit how we would meet (the premier’s) challenge,” Cronin says.
Wales says there are lots of good ideas in Wynne’s letter to Leal, including the continued work on sustainability, getting in place the natural gas program to expand infrastructure into rural Ontario and the continued need for farm support programs, such as Growing Forward 2.
Wales says he’s looked at the other ministers’ letters too and noticed the same matter “is across more than one ministry.” For example, expanding natural gas infrastructure is mentioned in letters to the ministers of energy and economic development, employment and infrastructure. He also says there are matters in other ministers’ letters the federation will be tracking, such as the re-introduction of the strengthen Great Lakes protection bill, found in the environment and climate change minister’s letter. “Some of these directions sound nice but what’s the detail?’ he asks.
Farm leaders agree publicly releasing the mandate letters is a good idea. Wales says it helps them understand where the minister and his or her ministry have been told to focus their work plan on. Karen Eatwell, president of National Farmers Union – Ontario and Region 3 coordinator, says “it helps show a bit more transparency on how government works.”
NFU-O supports everything in Wynne’s letter to Leal, particularly the section on ensuring the agricultural industry’s sustainability. Many of the broad plans in the letter are what “the NFU-O has been working towards,” Eatwell says.
A year after the group recaptured its accreditation under the Farm Registration and Farm Organizations Funding Act, it has rebuilt its membership to 1,350 members, she says, adding it will take another year or two before the group reaches the 2,000 membership level it had before the Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal refused to reaccredit it under the Act.
Lorne Small, president of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, couldn’t be reached for comment. BF