TORONTO - The proposal announced July 10 by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), to seek "enforceable province-wide legislation regulating agricultural operations" is something the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and its partners in the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition have been after for several years.
"It's time the government moved on this," says OFA President Jack Wilkinson. Ontario's farmers know how important protection of the environment is since they depend on the environment for their living. For years farmers and their organizations have requested the government enact regulations that are enforced uniformly across the province to enhance protection of the environment. Maintaining a balance between environmental protection and operational viability will be a key to the success of any legislation, he says.
Monday's announcement by OMAFRA is welcome news, in most respects, Wilkinson says. The idea of attaching fees to the legislation could be problematic for farmers, especially in today's economic climate. Ontario's farmers, in 1999, saw their lowest net farm income since 1973, and wet weather this spring and summer has reduced the optimism of farmers that they might expect greater returns from this year's crops.
Administrative costs at the municipal level may be the reason for the fee proposal, since the provincial government has downloaded so many other costs to that level, Wilkinson says, but that's not going to make paying such fees any easier for today's cash strapped farmers.
While the OFA can support the various categories of farming operations proposed by the government, it is also important that the same enforcement standards be applied across all categories, Wilkinson says.
The idea of training sessions isn't new to farmers, he says, since farmers have been taking courses on pesticide application for years and know the value of upgrading their knowledge of changing technologies. With OMAFRA closing so many of its field offices earlier this year and moving services to Internet access, the OFA will be anxious to see how the government proposes to provide training, Wilkinson says.
We are aware of septic systems in rural Ontario and municipal sewage treatment facilities burdened with rainstorm runoff that will require closer government scrutiny, Wilkinson notes. Is the government going to apply the same environmental standards in these situations as it proposes for farms, Wilkinson asks.
Contact: Jack Wilkinson 705-647-3623 or 416-485-3333
From the Archives:
AgriNotes, July 2000
