Five years ago, northern Ontario cattle producer Jack Tindall drove from his farm to Ottawa to tell politicians his industry and his farm were bleeding and needed help.
He was back again last week to say that while post-BSE programs helped for a time, they no longer do.
“The crisis is still here,” he told a Parliament Hill news conference after joining a delegation of Ontario cattle producers in a lobby of MPs from all parties. “We’re in worse shape than we were at the time and those programs are no longer working.”
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The producer lobby included Ontario National Farmers Union co-ordinator Grant Robertson and Ontario Cattlemen’s Association president Gord Hardy who, as a Canadian Cattlemen’s Association executive member, said he also spoke for the CCA.
They were demanding changes to the AgriStability program to improve coverage of negative margins and to end the “viability test” that requires a producer to have a profit in two of the three historic reference margin years.
Hardy said removal of the payment cap under the AgriInvest program also would help.
Federal and provincial agriculture ministers have agreed to meet in January to review the Growing Forward business risk management programs and how they are performing.
Hardy gave his answer last week: not very well.
“In this industry you almost need an off-farm job to subsidize your farming and that is a sad thing when you think of Canada as a strong nation and there’s lots of people to feed here,” he said. “It’s a shame that we can’t feed them with our own people and our own produce.”
In the House of Commons later that day, Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., New Democrat Tony Martin, who helped organize the news conference, raised their issue with agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. Farm numbers are falling, he said.
“Beef farmers face mounting bills, ineffective support programs from Conservative and Liberal governments. Will this government put more money into AgriStability and give it some teeth so it can actually work for northern Ontario beef farmers?”
Ritz insisted all that has been done. The farm support program has been improved and discussions continue on a livestock insurance program, he said.
In fact, production insurance promises have been made for a decade but there is no progress beyond pilot projects.
