Dollars for rural health

Rural health care in Ontario will get a piece of the $11.5 billion February's federal budget threw toward provincial medicare. How much and where will depend on fulfillment of promises flying fast and furious in the run-up to the provincial election.

Though Ontario Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer's department holds the purse strings to that federal booty, it's been largely silent on handing it out. Calls to the minister's office over a two-week period requesting spending details were not returned.

The opposition, however, is effusive. Provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton has vowed his government would guarantee assessment in 15 minutes in Ontario emergency rooms.

And provincial Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty gave the health care football a good kick by promising to keep open hospitals recommended for closing by the Health Services Restructuring Commission. Where and how many he said he'd reveal as "campaign strategy." He also said that under a Liberal regime, Ontario medical students agreeing to work in health-ministry designated underserved areas (primarily northern or rural regions) for five years following graduation would receive free tuition, and proposed increasing medical school enrollment by 15 per cent.

While giving credit to some of the pre-election scrum proposals, one physician with a frontline view suggests it will take more than cash and increasing medical school enrollment to place and keep family doctors and specialists in small-town Ontario.

Dr. James Rourke is director of the Southwestern Ontario Rural Medicine program (SWORM). SWORM, an arm of the University of Western Ontario's faculty of medicine, has a mandate to improve rural health care through education, research and development in the area roughly bounded by Windsor to the west, Owen Sound to the north and Kitchener in the east.

Raised on a mixed farm south of Park Head, west of Owen Sound, Rourke has practised for 19 years in rural Ontario since graduating from Western. He and his wife, Leslie, currently share a family-medicine practice in Goderich.

Rourke says medical students should have more exposure to rural health care situations, and underserved communities should be assisted in creating a favourable environment for doctors.

Undergrad medical students at Western, for example, spend one week on rural medical education as part of the first-year curriculum. Last year, says Rourke, 97 students fanned out to 33 southwestern communities. "That kind of exposure early in a career can encourage a decision to practise in a small town or rural area," and should be expanded, he says.

At the post-graduate level, half of Western's 24-month family medicine program is spent in rural communities such as Goderich. Rourke recommends increasing the total number of post-grad positions in rural family medicine.

But an inclination to practise in a rural community can vanish if the community itself is lacking in a doctor's basic needs. Rourke says the majority of recent medical graduates want to practise medicine, not run a practice that presumes office ownership and management responsibilities and costs. They want to work in a clinic setting with other doctors, sharing administrative, nursing and diagnostic facilities. Ideally, specialist support - obstetrics, minor surgery and anaesthetics - should be at hand or nearby.

Rourke says funding should be made available to assist in providing that kind of setting within rural or small-town hospitals. After all, he says, "If you're an expectant mom in Exeter you shouldn't have to drive to London to have your baby." - Richard Charteris

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back

Details but still no dough

Federal minister vows quick turnaround for disaster assistance

It's been three months of waiting for cash-strapped Canadian farmers heading into the input season, but the federal government has finally made good on its $900-million portion of a federal-provincial farm aid package that could hit $1.5 billion over two years. The longer-term future of the Canadian farm safety net system remains in flux, however.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief announced the new Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance (AIDA) program after the First Ministers meeting in Victoria, B.C., late February. The good news for Ontario producers is the paperwork is already done, as the federal program uses the same criteria as the Ontario Whole Farm Relief Program: payouts when a farmer's gross margin falls below 70 per cent of a three-year average. The province will simply forward applications for the Ontario program to Ottawa for the federal government to pay its promised 60 per cent.

Ontario Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve said the federal program is "very compatible" with the province's program. He indicated very little extra paperwork would be needed to allow the federal government to proceed with its payout.

During a conference call, however, Vanclief wouldn't be pinned down to a date for the federal portion, vowing instead to turn cheques around "just as quick as we possibly can."

As well as Ontario, the provinces of Alberta, P.E.I., Quebec and B.C. will process both the federal share of AIDA, and the provincial share of aid funding. The federal government will administer AIDA in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland, with a joint approach in New Brunswick.

Vanclief stressed that there will be no provincial favouritism: "Every farmer in Canada who triggers the criteria...will be treated exactly the same."

Less palatable for Ontario farmers will be some of the details of the federal program. Similar to the Ontario program, so-called "negative margins" - when the gross margin falls below zero - won't be covered. Vanclief said both provinces and industry agreed that covering negative margins could undermine existing risk management tools such as crop insurance and hedging.

There will also be a Net Income Stabilization Account tie-in: The federal NISA contribution will be deducted from the federal AIDA payout regardless of whether a farmer is enrolled in NISA or not.

A farmer qualifying for $20,000 in federal disaster relief who triggered a $5,000 federal NISA payment, for instance, would get $15,000. For a farmer not enrolled in NISA, the government will deduct what the federal payment would have been.

Vanclief, recently under fire for suggesting farmers should withdraw from their NISA accounts before applying for disaster relief, defended the move as a bid "to encourage the use of that risk management tool [NISA]." The minister said he is under Cabinet scrutiny for the $2.8 billion compounding in Canadian farmers' NISA accounts, half of which is "provincial and federal money."

The federal portion of the program will be capped at $175,000 per individual; for corporations, the maximum is $175,000 per person to a maximum of five people, or a total $875,000.

Vanclief also insisted AIDA would be "green" under World Trade Organization rules. Rather, he blamed part of the Canadian crisis on "increased export subsidies by our competitors."

While the AIDA will be a "very useful experience" as governments embark on safety net deliberations, Vanclief said many questions remained as ministers left the Victoria meeting about what to do when AIDA's two years are up: "Are the [safety net] moneys, $400 million fromthe provinces and $600 million from the government, being spent in the best way possible? Is there more money that's needed, [and if so] where would the money come from, and what would be the split?" - John Muggeridge

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back

Cheques in the mail

The Ontario Whole Farm Income Relief program is off to a good start and may provide more assistance than critics had predicted, says David Hope, OMAFRA's director, policy analysis branch.

"I'm pleased at the rate the applications are coming in and that a lot of individuals are getting considerable assistance from the program," Hope observes.

He says the government mailed out "slightly under 300 cheques," totaling $3 million during the first two weeks of the program. OMAFRA received 1,000 applications during the same period.

Ontario Pork has complained the program's eligibility criteria are too strict. Liberal MPP John Cleary, Cornwall, who is expected to square off against Agriculture Minister Noble Villeneuve in the next provincial election, has charged that "those needing assistance the most, will be left to fend for themselves." - Robert Irwin

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back

Sales tax savings

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture says changing the rules governing the collection of the Retail Sales Tax could save provincial farmers up to $37 million in unwarranted taxes.

According to a 1995 federal tax study, farmers are paying equivalent of 3.7 per cent of their family income to cover excess taxation.

The OFA says the problem could be licked if a more complete list of items exempt from the tax was approved. Farmers would then be able to receive a point-of-purchase exemption on these items when they show their farm registration number or OFA membership card at the checkout.

Wellington farmer Ray Baptie, a member of the OFA's finance committee, says Ontario farmers would receive far better tax treatment if they were given the same RST exemptions as British Columbia farmers. "The Ontario exemption list is about a page long," says Baptie. "The B.C. list goes on for some 12 pages."

The Ontario exemption list also uses some confusing logic to determine what items qualify for rebates.

"If I were to go to a fish-your-own pond my catch would be taxed. However, if I went to a pick-your-own berry farm, it's not taxed," says Baptie. "The furnace in a greenhouse is not taxed; the same furnace in a hog barn is taxed. The material for grain bins is not taxed. However, if it should appear constructed as a silo, it is taxed."

Currently, when farmers receive at-source exemptions they are required to fill out a form declaring that the item is wholly used in the production of agriculture. Baptie would like to see Ontario farmers receive the same treatment as Maritime farmers who receive the rebate if 50 per cent or more of the item is used in farming.

If the OFA proposals were to be effective, there would have to be stiff penalty for misuse of identification cards and numbers.

"If they sign a piece of paper saying it is 50 per cent or more wholly used in farming and it is not, there would be severe legal implications for that fraud," Baptie says. -Bernard Tobin

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back

Seaway funding secured

After seven years of setbacks, it looks as if eastern Ontario's corn growers are finally going to be able to start shipping to an ethanol plant in Cornwall next year - providing they first put up another $6.75 million in member equity.

Chairman Bud Atkins says Seaway Valley Farmers Energy Co-op is ready to ink a credit deal with European banker Rabobank, but first must meet the bank's demand for a bigger stake from the co-op's 2,000 members.

District meetings are underway to raise the cash. At the first, held late last month with 225 members, the co-op earned $1 million in commitments.

"We're 95 per cent sure we'll have a plant opening sometime in the year 2000," Atkins says. And Atkins isn't alone. An informal poll of directors on the Ontario Corn Producers Association shows a clear majority expect construction to start within the year.

Brian Doidge, grains and oilseed economist at Ridgetown College, says the plant will add an average eight to 10 cents to corn prices in eastern Ontario. The Cornwall plant would produce 65 million litres of ethanol from 6.5 million bushels of corn a year.

Doidge says the Seaway site would be the second largest user of eastern Ontario corn. Casco at Cardinal grinds 17 million bushels a year. Most years, Doidge adds, eastern Ontario corn growers produce 20 to 22 million bushels.

Atkins says the plant would cost $42.5 million to build. The Co-op has already raised $12.3 million, including $8.6 from shares, and over $3 million in provincial grants. If members add another $6.75 million, Rabobank will provide $17.3 million. Farm Credit will put up $8.7 million.

Atkins says the plant will make money as long as corn stays under $5.20 per bushel. At $3 per bushel, it would make $15.2 million in pre-tax profits. "As owners and shareholders, we will make some money," Atkins says. "That's the name of the game." - Tom Button

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back

Farmer of the Year

Ancaster farmer-wheat-sheaf champ Raymond Wilson figures it all goes back to the day when Grandpa Wilson had to leave his horse and buggy mired in a muddy track on the way home from showing clover seed at a show in Hamilton.

Raymond recalls him trudging into the farm kitchen, muddy but unbowed, waving a red first prize ribbon.

"I guess that's where it started," said Wilson after being named recipient of the 1998 Osborne L. Sager award as Hamilton-Wentworth's Farmer of the Year in Ancaster late February.

With an impressive list of local and Royal Winter Fair ribbons, including world champion wheat sheaf and world champion barley sheaf, Wilson also grows crops and runs a small farrow-to-finish operation on a third-generation family farm. Wilson, a certified management accountant who has invented his own sheaf maker, has been involved in 4-H since age 12 and in wheat sheaf making since he was 18.

"It's taught me a lot of patience," he said. "You have to be willing to take your lumps and learn from it."

© copyright 1999 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.


back