"Provincial pork producers were looking for a speedy resolution to the strike as a poshive signal to the financially stricken industry," stated Will Nap, Chairman, Ontario Pork. "Our disappointrnent is shared throughout the entire pork sector, which is also feeling the financial repercussions of low prices, diminished pork processing capacity and increased trucking costs to move the 25,000 hogs to different markets."
"We need the world class processing expertise of Quality Meat Packers to handle the 25,000 hogs in our province," remarked Paul Knechtel, Chief Executive Officer, Ontario Pork. "We cannot afford to loose a plant of this calibre. We have already seen two processing plants close in the United States ultimately reducing the North American processing capacity by 5%."
Ontario Pork represents 6,000 producers in Ontario in many areas including hog marketing, consumer education, research, government representation, environmental issues, animal care and quality assurance programs. The Ontario Pork Producers' Marketing Board had gross sales of $687 million in 1997, based on sales of approximately four million bogs. It is estimated that the total industry output from farm gate sales is worth $4.5 billion to the Ontario economy.
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Today, farmers still have little detail about how the program will be managed and therefore how and when it will be delivered. A month after the Minister's announcement, there is nothing that can be considered remotely close to being "bankable". The federal and provincial bureaucracies appear to be more concerned about turf warfare than the farmers' welfare. As a result, farmers are not much closer to receiving the disaster funds than they were at the time of the Minister's announcement. The money needs to be in farmers hands - not in governments'.
The time for federal-provincial bargaining is over. Bureaucrats need to make the decisions that are going to move this issue ahead. They must stop trying to ratchet government exposure down to the lowest common denominator and concentrate, instead, on supporting farmers, farm families and rural communities. After all, the disaster program is intended for their benefit not for those who would administer it.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture continues to work to ensure that the income disaster program will cover 70% of reference margin (including negative margin), will be disconnected from NISA, and no-prorated.
Farmers from all provinces must make sure that their own provincial governments as well as federal MP's understand the need to have a real program that will pay out funds that farmers need now, not one that is designed to pay out only the bare minimum. Both federal and provincial politicians must also be made to understand that the decisions must be made as quickly as possible. Farmers in financial distress are having to make decisions on a daily basis. They need to have the right information on which to base those decisions. Time is a luxury many farmers no longer have at their disposal.
Governments announced the disaster support because of the strong demands of farmers from coast to coast. Were these announcements just promises? Was there an intent to back those promises up with real, deliverable programs? Who is there to ensure that farmers get the kind of program they fought for and won prior to last month's announcement by Minister Vanclief? These are the questions we have to start asking.
If you want the disaster program to pay out before summer, call your MP, call your MPP or your MLA, and call your Minister of Agriculture today. Tell them that the time for leadership did not end with last month's announcement that was only the beginning!
Sincerely,
Jack Wilkinson,
President
Canadian Federation of Agriculture
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