Ontario Agriculture

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Carol Mitchell - Appointed Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

We picked up the following information from the Ontario Government announcement and the OMAFRA website.


Carol Mitchell - Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Carol Mitchell joins Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Since 2003, Ontario has ensured that farms transferred within a family are exempted from land transfer taxes and has increased efforts to promote locally-grown food. Now, Minister Mitchell will continue the government's efforts to help our farmers build a thriving rural Ontario through our high-tech agriculture and food sectors.


Carol Mitchell was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. She first served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture. Subsequently, she served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal. She was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in January 2010.

In her 12 years in municipal government, Carol was on Clinton council and was reeve of Central Huron. She was the first warden of Huron County to serve two terms in more than 100 years. Mitchell was the owner of clothing stores in Clinton and Bayfield. Born and raised in Clinton, she and her husband, Larry, have two children, Gabrielle and Jasmine.

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Permalink Reply by Roadrunner on January 19, 2010 at 3:47am
Does she have any direct experience in the agriculture sector other than being the Parl Assistant to Leona?
I hope she is a quick study and good Minister...we need it.
Permalink Reply by Tom Murray on January 19, 2010 at 3:55am
She can not possibly be any worse than Leona. Hopefully coming from Huron-Bruce she has a much better understanding of agriculture. We need someone to seriously step up to the plate and vigoursly support and defend agriculture in this province or the US and Quebec will continue to run us over.
Permalink Reply by Wayne Black on January 19, 2010 at 8:53am
Yeah she does. She has a great network of farmers that she routinely talks with being that Agriculture is now the number one industry in her riding. The economic impact of agriculture in 1/2 of her region (Huron) is in excess of $2.6 billion. She is well aware of the impact of agriculture. She also mentioned one day that the Huron-Bruce riding needed one more chicken farmer and she would have the most pig, dairy, chicken, and beef farmers of any other riding. She is aware of these numbers.
The Huron County fed of Ag routinely meets with her every few months on the local issues and neighbours of mine do not hesitate to call her office also.
She could be a great Minister but as long as we have the same bureaucrats behind her, same old - same old.

Roadrunner said:
Does she have any direct experience in the agriculture sector other than being the Parl Assistant to Leona?
I hope she is a quick study and good Minister...we need it.
Permalink Reply by rein minnema on January 19, 2010 at 1:13pm
congratulation Huron /Bruce
congratulation agriculture Ontario

Wayne Black said:
Yeah she does. She has a great network of farmers that she routinely talks with being that Agriculture is now the number one industry in her riding. The economic impact of agriculture in 1/2 of her region (Huron) is in excess of $2.6 billion. She is well aware of the impact of agriculture. She also mentioned one day that the Huron-Bruce riding needed one more chicken farmer and she would have the most pig, dairy, chicken, and beef farmers of any other riding. She is aware of these numbers.
The Huron County fed of Ag routinely meets with her every few months on the local issues and neighbours of mine do not hesitate to call her office also.
She could be a great Minister but as long as we have the same bureaucrats behind her, same old - same old.

Roadrunner said:
Does she have any direct experience in the agriculture sector other than being the Parl Assistant to Leona?
I hope she is a quick study and good Minister...we need it.
Permalink Reply by AgOntario on January 28, 2010 at 4:35am
What advice would you give the new ag minister? What would your priority be???

Check out responses to "What would you do if you were ag minister for a day?" at http://betterfarming.com/online-news/what-would-you-do-if-you-were-...
Permalink Reply by bert on March 21, 2010 at 11:20am
when mc ginty was opposition leader Pat hoy was agriculture critic but wgen liberals became govt party they bypassed hoy put in whats his name as minister then leona dom , hoy know agriculture and could have been good

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