Ontario’s largest farm organization is calling on the federal government to scrap its Options program that is designed to funnel cash to low-income farms, claiming that while it may work for Saskatchewan, it does not for Ontario.
Instead, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture said the $100 million that should come as the province’s part of the program should be used to fund income support programs that Ontario farmers want.
“As we look at the design and the take-up of the Options program, it has clearly missed the mark and is not working for Ontario,” OFA vice-president Geri Kamenz said Oct. 16.
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“It is an excellent social program but the sector in Ontario doesn’t want a social program. It needs farm income support programs.”
He said the OFA was recommending only a course of action for Ontario and not recommending that the Options program be scrapped across the country.
However, the national question could be debated this week at a meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture safety nets committee in Ottawa.
The OFA says Ontario’s portion of the money would be better spent on provincially designed proposals such as the cost-of-production-based Risk Management Program.
Federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl has said Ontario’s design is unacceptable to Ottawa because it is too rich and susceptible to trade challenges.
He is unlikely to accept Ontario’s advice, arguing that the Options program is designed as a two-year pilot project that should be allowed to run its course before its effectiveness is judged.
The federal government has set aside $550 million over two years to supplement the incomes of farm families that have farm-generated gross revenues of at least $50,000 and net total family income of less than $25,000 for a family or $15,000 for a single farmer.
But at least for the OFA leadership, the results are evident already.
The program is not suited to Ontario conditions because most farmers not able to make a living on the farm have access to off-farm jobs that raise their net income above the minimum threshold.
President Ron Bonnett said in a statement issued from OFA head offices in Guelph that “government documents indicate that 45 percent of the funds paid out have gone to farm families in one province, not Ontario.”
Kamenz said it is Saskatchewan.
“In Saskatchewan in many areas, there simply are not the opportunities for off-farm incomes so it may work better there but it is not what we need here.”
