OTTAWA – Ontario hog industry leader Curtiss Littlejohn said publicly last week what many Ontario farmers have only been willing to say privately – government farm support is biased toward grain and the West.
At a House of Commons agriculture committee meeting Nov. 23, Littlejohn said his once prosperous hog operation southwest of Toronto now is bankrupt and in farm debt mediation.
He has received little federal support.
For years, Ontario hog producers faced with losses from disease, U.S. import restrictions and higher input costs have asked for a government response through AgriRecovery, he told MPs.
Read Also
Anti-separatist movement targets rural Alberta
Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s anti-separatism Alberta Forever Canada petition campaign expects to run full steam ahead into the province’s farming regions
The answer was to wait for normal program support through AgriStability and AgriInvest.
However, the quick response by provinces and Ottawa in July to get $450 million in AgriRecovery money to prairie grain producers facing losses because of excess rain and flooding exposed the weakness of that political response.
“So it appeared that … the grain industry has always been held at a higher regard than the livestock industry in this country. It doesn’t matter who is in government,” he said.
