Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

New Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs, Jeff Leal, Who is he and will he be a good Minister of Ag?

 

 

Jeff Leal

Political Career

  • Minister of Rural Affairs, February 2013 – May 2014
  • Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, October 2007 – February 2010
  • Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, September 2006 – September 2007
  • Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy, November 2005 – September 2006
  • Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, June 2005 – November 2005
  • Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, September 2004 – June 2005
  • Second Deputy Mayor, Peterborough
  • City Councillor, Peterborough

Education

  • B.A. (Honours), Economics and Political Science, Trent University
  • Business Administration degree (Honours), University of Windsor

Personal and Family Life

  • Married (Karan) with two children, Braden and Shanae

Executive Biography

Jeff Leal was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 as the MPP for Peterborough. He was re-elected in 2007, 2011 and 2014.

Leal was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in June 2014. He has served as Chief Government Whip, and as Parliamentary Assistant to the Ministers of Aboriginal Affairs, the Environment, Energy, Economic Development and Trade, and Training, Colleges and Universities.

Prior to being elected to the legislature, Leal was a Peterborough city councillor and second deputy mayor. He has worked extensively with the county and local governments, as well as the City of Peterborough.

From the Ontario Government website.

Views: 1166

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by OntAG Admin on June 24, 2014 at 9:53am
Permalink Reply by OntAG Admin on June 25, 2014 at 2:35am

OHRIA Welcomes Minister Leal.

OHRIA News

The Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association is pleased with the announcement that Premier Kathleen Wynne has named Jeff Leal as Minister of Agriculture and Food, taking over those duties from Wynne.

 

The Agriculture portfolio is very important for members of the horse racing industry, and OHRIA looks forward to dealing with Minister Leal in this key position.

 

As Minister Leal will also be continuing in the position of Minister of Rural Affairs, we know the Minister already has a great insight into the concerns of our members and we are interested in building our relationship further.

 

"The past two years have seen tremendous changes for our industry, with significant issues that need to be addressed and Minister Leal has already demonstrated through word and action a genuine concern for the horse racing and breeding industry," said Sue Leslie, President and Chair of OHRIA. "We expect the government will be a strong partner in tackling these concerns in the next few months."

 

Prior to the cancellation of the Slots at Racetracks Program 60,000 people were employed in the horse racing and breeding sectors. The industry continues to employ tens of thousands and plays an important role in the economy of rural Ontario, and OHRIA looks forward to our next meeting with Minister Leal to work together on building a strong partnership with the government.

Permalink Reply by OntAG Admin on June 26, 2014 at 1:34am

OFA committed to working with new provincial cabinet.

OFA News

GUELPH, ON [June 24, 2014] – In a post-election cabinet shuffle, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced today the re-amalgamation of the agriculture and rural affairs ministries. The cabinet announcement also included changes to other ministry portfolios. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is supportive of all the changes and will continue working closely with the various ministries to address important issues affecting the business of farming in Ontario.

Ontario’s agriculture and food industries are affected by a number of portfolios across multiple ministries. The OFA looks forward to working with new and returning Ministers and policy makers in their areas of legislative responsibility.

The OFA welcomes returning Minister Jeff Leal to his expanded portfolio as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. As former Minister of Rural Affairs, Leal is familiar with both the rural and agricultural landscape. The OFA will work closely with him to champion agriculture, food and rural issues across other ministries, particularly Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. 

Led by Minister Brad Duguid, the newly reconstituted Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure will prove to be important to the agriculture and agri-food sector’s plans for economic growth in Ontario. OFA will work with Minister Duguid on the Liberal party’s promise to enable natural gas connections across rural Ontario. Natural gas expansion across our province is a sound investment and will improve the competitiveness of farms and other rural businesses.

Continuing with its focus on food literacy, the OFA will work with the new Minister of Health, Dr. Eric Hoskins, and returning Minister of Education Liz Sandals, to develop a long-term strategy to reintroduce nutrition and food preparation into Ontario’s education system. The OFA also looks forward to working with former Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ted McMeekin, in his new role as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. McMeekin will lead the review of the Greenbelt, Oak Ridges and Niagara Escarpment Plans and the OFA will be at the table to ensure farming and food businesses remain sustainable within these land-use designated areas. OFA will work closely with Reza Moridi, the new Minister of Research and Innovation, to continue critical agricultural research into new markets, climate change and enhanced productivity.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is the largest general farm organization in Ontario. As a dynamic farmer-led organization based in Guelph, the OFA works to represent and champion the interests of Ontario farmers through government relations, farm policy recommendations, lobby efforts, community representation, media relations and more. OFA is the leading advocate for Ontario’s farmers and is Ontario’s voice of the farmer.

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation visits EMILI’s Innovation Farms

The Honourable Evan Solomon, Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation visited EMILI’s Innovation Farms to discuss AI innovation and get a firsthand look at the important work taking place to advance agtech in Manitoba. “This week in Winnipeg was about practical AI and Manitoba’s place in Canada’s innovation economy,” he said in a post on LinkedIn after the event. “I visited Manitoba Innovates and EMILI Innovation Farms to see how Manitoba is supporting startups, agtech and real-world technology adoption.” EMILI is very proud of the work taking place in Manitoba to drive agriculture innovation, and how the impact is stretching across Canada with the recent launch of the AIVA Network which EMILI is a co-founder of. It was an honour to share details and answer questions about 30+ projects being tested and demonstrated on EMILI’s Innovation Farms this season, including Verge Ag, Cellar Insights, Agi3, Geco Strategic Weed Management, Miraterra, GrainFox, and mor

This is Agriculture: Customer success sales and marketing lead

After entering university to play volleyball, Courtney Kowk found her way into the agriculture program and continued her studies with a masters degree in agricultural economics. While her work experience started during university, her connection to agriculture began with a love for animals and a connection to her grandparents in Saskatchewan. She continued into a role at Cellar Insights, which allowed her to work closely with producer-focused innovation. Where did you grow up? Was it an agriculture or urban environment? I grew up in East St. Paul, a small municipality just outside of Winnipeg. It wasn’t a farming community, but it also wasn’t fully urban, so I got a bit of both worlds growing up. What was your dream job when you were a kid? Thinking back, I don’t know if I ever really had a dream job. I don’t think I spent much time thinking about growing up or being an adult, I was pretty happy just being a kid and not having to worry about those responsibilities yet. At one point

Insurance companies slammed with hail damage claims from summer storms

Member companies of the Canadian Crop Hail Association (CCHA) say they're processing more than 2,000 claims of crop damage across the Prairies. Members of the Canadian Crop Hail Association include Co-operative Hail Insurance Company, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation, Palliser Insurance Company Ltd, Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance and Rain and Hail Insurance Services. The claims stem from storms that occurred June 22nd to July 5th. During that time, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba were hit with hail from golf-ball size to baseball size, along with wind and large amounts of rain. President of CCHA Tyson Ryhorchuk says a large area of Saskatchewan was hit by consecutive days of hail. "Alberta and Manitoba are also fairly heavy, especially in southwest Manitoba," said Ryhorchuk. "But there was that large storm that everyone's been hearing about that stretched basically from Calgary all the way down to Swift Current that had a pretty big swath of hail that came thro

Unity's Field of Dreams gets boost from BASF’s Field of Purpose

The Cardinal Diamond Revitalization Project will soon be transitioning into its third year of work, and this year the project received some help from BASF. For the past few years, the committee has had the opportunity to fund the project alongside the North West Terminal, with the sale of the grain being used to pay for the diamond renovations. Several farmers in the area have continued to help with these fundraising efforts following the sale of the local grain terminal, and committee president Cory Wildeman said the group learned about the Field of Purpose program after approaching BASF rep Layna Levorson for a donation of crop protection chemicals. The revitalization project received enough Sphaerex fungicide and Voraxor pre-seed to support 240 acres of soft white spring wheat through the BASF program, which has been operating under the Field of Purpose name for the past two years. Tabetha Boot, head of Communications & Industry Relations at BASF, said the company tries to support

New-Crop Soy Production Up, But Ending Stocks Steady

U.S. soybean ending stocks for 2026–27 were left unchanged in the USDA’s July supply and demand report on Friday, even after a larger planted area raised the expected size of the new-crop harvest. The USDA maintained its new-crop carryout forecast at 310 million bu, unchanged from June and well below the average pre-report trade expectation of roughly 332 million. New-crop soybean production was increased by 40 million bu to 4.475 billion, reflecting a 700,000-acre increase in planted area to 85.4 million acres. Harvested area was also raised by 700,000 acres to 84.4 million, while the national yield forecast remained unchanged at 53 bu/acre. However, the larger crop did not translate into an equal increase in total supply. Beginning stocks were lowered by 10 million bushels to 330 million, leaving total 2026–27 supplies up a net 30 million bushels at 4.83 billion. Meanwhile, the USDA also raised projected soybean exports by 30 million bu to 1.66 billion, citing increased supp

© 2026   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service