With the news that Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell was appointed to Minister of Agriculture comes hope for a new risk management program.
Huron County Federation of Agriculture President Wayne Black says they want to change the way dollars are channelled to the farm.
Working with the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition, Black says they are lobbying for a new risk management program for the non-supply managed commodities.
Basically, he says it’s a little bit of price protection for farmers when their losses are heavy at times.
Black says the coalition has already been lobbying the province and says Mitchell has supported them.
Now that Mitchell is Minister of Agriculture, Black hopes she can push more of their proposals to the table.
But at the same time, Black says they still need support from the Fed’s.
Right now, Black says the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition is still crunching numbers to see how much the program will cost.
Black says the coalitions plan will not mean a huge increase for the average tax payer because they are just changing the way dollars are channelled to the farmer.
And it’s an insurance type program that the farmer has to put money into themselves.
Black says their next step is to put more meat into their proposal and bring it to Mitchell’s attention again.
The County of Huron is taking the coalitions proposal to the ROMA — the Rural Ontario Municipal Association — meeting in February.
ROMA is expected to then present the coalitions proposal to Minister Mitchell and Federal Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz.
He add’s it’s about time a representative from Huron-Bruce is Minister of Agriculture again.