GUELPH, Ont. — The issues facing farmers in southern Ontario during this election campaign aren’t so different from those in the West.
Business risk management and trade top the list.
The fact that these issues weren’t discussed through most of the campaign grates a little, say farm leaders.
“The timing of the election makes the small issue of harvest top of mind,” said Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe.
The busy harvest season is not the ideal time for grain farmers such as McCabe, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat near Inwood, Ont., to turn their attention to federal issues.
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But on a rainy day in Guelph, where the OFA executive was meeting, he said he had a greater concern than that.
“Most disturbing is a lack of recognition of agriculture from any of the parties,” he said.
Grain Farmers of Ontario chief executive officer Barry Senft agreed.
“It’s too bad compared to the past,” he said of this campaign.
“Agriculture was a big deal. We’re only one to two percent of the population now, so I guess it doesn’t warrant a lot of attention paid to it, but it’s still a significant player in the economy.”
He also said the region is a vote-rich environment with one-third of the province’s federal seats.
Rural Ontario has been a stronghold for the Conservatives since 2004 and few see that changing much after Oct. 19.
Prices for all commodities have been good, and farmers are generally happy.
There were 41 urban-rural seats among Ontario’s 106 total in the last Parliament.
However, redistributed boundaries have created 22 urban-rural, 17 rural-urban and just one completely rural riding in the 121 riding total.
Thirty-three of those 40 ridings were Conservative at dissolution. The NDP held four ridings and the Liberals and Green Party each held one. One seat is brand new.
Polling indicates the Conservatives are likely to retain their rural base with perhaps four or five seats moving to the Liberals and the Green party seat going to the NDP.
The numbers don’t surprise Al Mussell, researcher at Agri-Food Economic Systems, an independent research organization in Guelph.
“Rural voters have tended to vote Conservative, and it may be they will continue to do so if other parties are not picking up their issues,” he said in an interview.
It’s about leaving well enough alone, he added.
McCabe said rural Ontario has been known to make or break majority governments. He suggested the 15 new ridings in the province will dilute the rural vote and farmers need to be vocal about what they want.
The OFA wants better risk management programs, increased federal transfer to rural municipal infrastructure and publicly funded research.
“There has been a very large erosion to risk management programs,” McCabe said.
Markets have been good, but the programs must be effective when markets go south, he said.
He said better broadband infrastructure is a significant need so that farmers have access to timely information and can implement precision farming and conduct business.
He also said a large reduction in basic research that private companies don’t do is a detriment to the industry.
The GFO wants more government money in research and also has concerns about AgriStability.
Senft said the program does not work for the Ontario grain industry.
“It isn’t the program to deal with some of the hits we potentially will take,” he said.
Crop insurance covers production risks, but there must be a better program to address the other risks that farmers take, he said.
The organization also wants a strong federal regulatory environment because of its ongoing issues with provincial regulations regarding seed treatments. The GFO sued the province over its ban on neonicotinoids, and the case was heard Sept. 28. The decision was reserved.
“The federal government needs to step in and not have producers non-competitive to other producers in the country,” Senft said.
“It’s not the thin edge of the wedge, it’s the wedge.”
