The new president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture says the federation is poised to become an aggressive lobby to resolve issues that trouble the industry.
“I would like the industry to know that OFA will engage in proactive lobbying,” Betty Jean Crews said Dec. 11. “We are really set up to lead this industry and we will.”
The 61-year-old eastern Ontario grain and horticulture crop producer was elected in late November to replace Gerri Kamenz, who stepped down after two years.
Crews takes the helm of a newly redesigned OFA that she says is better able to be focused and forceful.
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At the convention that elected her, delegates voted to replace a cumbersome 100 member board of directors with a scaled down 18-member board. They also voted to create a 100 member policy advisory committee that will flag issues that need to be dealt with across the province.
“This is a very large and diverse industry,” she said. “There are different issues in different sectors. I must say that while the statistics say farm incomes are up, I don’t see it when I travel around and talk to farmers. That is an issue for me.”
Crews said one concern is growing farm debt, particularly among younger producers in the livestock sector who have borrowed to get into the business and in many cases have had to borrow to stay afloat in the face of poor returns.
“These farmers don’t have the money to repay those loans and governments have to understand that and do something,” she said. “We need a program to address that.”
Last year, Ontario farmers added $500 million to their debt load, including many livestock producers who took emergency advances a year ago to get through an income crisis that still exists. Those loans now are coming due.
Total provincial farm debt is $13.2 billion, almost double the debt load a decade ago and almost a quarter of the total Canadian farm debt.
“I do think the debt level is worrying,” said the OFA president.
Crews also vowed to try to convince the provincial government that its farm tax rules are absurd.
Provincial tax laws impose a higher property tax when tax officials believe farmers have been value-adding their crops on the farm, converting farm property to “commercial” property.
It creates ludicrous and unfair situations, said the OFA president.
“On our farm, for example, you keep the value of your cherries by taking the pit out and adding sugar or otherwise they will rot in storage,” she said. “The government considers that value adding, making it a commercial activity subject to much higher taxation. We see it as just preserving the value of the crop.”
She said the OFA will also lobby to get government compensation for the environmental benefits farmers provide.
Crews operates an 800 acre farm near Trenton, Ont., that includes a woodlot and up to 400 acres in cash crops.
