The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada
Time for delivery of aid for pork sector
By Bette Jean Crews, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
With thousands of pork producers in Ontario unable to maintain their farms, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is calling on federal and provincial governments to step forward and deliver the aid packages that will keep these farm families from losing everything.
The suffering has been going on for months, promises have been made, but nothing delivered to help these farm families.
We have all come to recognize the issues that are behind the economic difficulties threatening the future of the domestic pork industry in Canada. Pork producers rely on exports for a large portion of their sales, and the high value of the Canadian dollar has meant a major loss of export sales.
The Country of Origin Labeling regulations in the United States have played a significant role in discouraging exports to that country – our largest customer, and the general economic downturn experienced in much of the world have also played a role in hammering what once was a strong and successful Canadian agriculture sector.
Completing the perfect storm aimed at taking down our pork industry has been the H1N1 virus, unfortunately still referred to as the swine flu. Although efforts have been made to direct the public’s attention to the H1N1 name, the term swine flu predominates, and society is unwilling to believe there is no link between eating pork and the virus.
On a recent speaking engagement at the University of Toronto, I discovered that at least one-third of the class believed that H1N1 could be passed along by eating pork. One student in the senior political science class asked why the government, if it supports Ontario pork, is not countering this myth with the facts.
All of this points to the conclusion that pork producers have become victims of a fate they are not responsible for creating.
This past summer the federal government announced an assistance program that would allow pork producers to transition out of the industry. The Canadian Pork Council requested that program, and said it would provide producers with thirty dollars per hog marketed in 2008 – an estimated cost of 800 million dollars.
Producers are still waiting for that money to be delivered, and the wait time is growing more painful each day. The Canadian Pork Council and the federal government met in late August to discuss the plan, and at that time the chair of the council emphatically stated: ‘every day is critical.’
‘We’re standing with Canadian pork producers as they restructure and streamline the industry to adjust to new market realities,’ National Revenue Minister Blackburn, said in August. Yet, there’s no sign of the money.
It’s difficult to be too critical of just the federal government. Through all of this anxiety and suffering by pork producers, the provincial government has been silent. When we compare that to an announcement out of Quebec on September 28, we have to ask why?
There, it was announced Quebec pork producers are expected to receive cash advances worth more than 128 million dollars from the ASRA program. This brings the total funds advanced to Quebec hog farmers for 2009 to 330 million dollars – 60 per cent of their projected net payouts under ASRA.
What additional suffering do Ontario pork farmers have to demonstrate before our provincial government moves to alleviate the damage that continues to unfold in Ontario?
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture will continue to work with Ontario Pork to get solutions that will work for Ontario’s pork farmers.
With thousands of pork producers in Ontario unable to maintain their farms, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is calling on federal and provincial governments to step forward and deliver the aid packages that will keep these farm families from losing everything.
The suffering has been going on for months, promises have been made, but nothing delivered to help these farm families.
We have all come to recognize the issues that are behind the economic difficulties threatening the future of the domestic pork industry in Canada. Pork producers rely on exports for a large portion of their sales, and the high value of the Canadian dollar has meant a major loss of export sales.
The Country of Origin Labeling regulations in the United States have played a significant role in discouraging exports to that country – our largest customer, and the general economic downturn experienced in much of the world have also played a role in hammering what once was a strong and successful Canadian agriculture sector.
Completing the perfect storm aimed at taking down our pork industry has been the H1N1 virus, unfortunately still referred to as the swine flu. Although efforts have been made to direct the public’s attention to the H1N1 name, the term swine flu predominates, and society is unwilling to believe there is no link between eating pork and the virus.
On a recent speaking engagement at the University of Toronto, I discovered that at least one-third of the class believed that H1N1 could be passed along by eating pork. One student in the senior political science class asked why the government, if it supports Ontario pork, is not countering this myth with the facts.
All of this points to the conclusion that pork producers have become victims of a fate they are not responsible for creating.
This past summer the federal government announced an assistance program that would allow pork producers to transition out of the industry. The Canadian Pork Council requested that program, and said it would provide producers with thirty dollars per hog marketed in 2008 – an estimated cost of 800 million dollars.
Producers are still waiting for that money to be delivered, and the wait time is growing more painful each day. The Canadian Pork Council and the federal government met in late August to discuss the plan, and at that time the chair of the council emphatically stated: ‘every day is critical.’
‘We’re standing with Canadian pork producers as they restructure and streamline the industry to adjust to new market realities,’ National Revenue Minister Blackburn, said in August. Yet, there’s no sign of the money.
It’s difficult to be too critical of just the federal government. Through all of this anxiety and suffering by pork producers, the provincial government has been silent. When we compare that to an announcement out of Quebec on September 28, we have to ask why?
There, it was announced Quebec pork producers are expected to receive cash advances worth more than 128 million dollars from the ASRA program. This brings the total funds advanced to Quebec hog farmers for 2009 to 330 million dollars – 60 per cent of their projected net payouts under ASRA.
What additional suffering do Ontario pork farmers have to demonstrate before our provincial government moves to alleviate the damage that continues to unfold in Ontario?
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture will continue to work with Ontario Pork to get solutions that will work for Ontario’s pork farmers.
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