Farmers should have been watching Jean Chrétien's lips in
Vancouver, Nov. 18, 1993. He promised then to abolish the GST
in two years. Sheila Copps said she would resign if the
Liberals didn't abolish the GST. We know what happened there.
The latest Liberal proposal for Ontario was to harmonize the
PST with the GST for a rate of 15 per cent. This was in
conjunction with a plan to set the national GST rate at 15 per
cent for Eastern Canada and 14 per cent for Western Canada
split between the two levels of government. Queen's Park feels
Ottawa would see Ontario's consumers pay a tax of $2 to $3
billion more. Currently, Ontario's PST brings in about $9
billion, with business paying about one-third of this. With
the proposed GST, consumers would pay this tax directly,
leaving businesses to reduce prices to consumers by the amount
of reduced taxation. Does anybody recall how much the baking
industry reduced bread prices when the two-price wheat system
was dropped by Ottawa?
Farmers would pay 15 per cent on services where they only pay
seven per cent now. Ottawa has been offering a special deal to
the Atlantic provinces funded by better than expected deficit
reduction numbers. So Ontario farmers' deficit reduction
efforts help fund a potential revenue transfer down East?
Driving this proposed change in taxation is the following
comparison. Among 25 Organization of Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) nations, the taxation pattern is 30 per
cent income tax, goods and services or value-added taxes at 30
per cent, and payroll taxes at 22 per cent. Canada has income
taxes at 40 per cent, GST-PST 26 per cent and payroll taxes
just 16 per cent. The Liberals have just ruled out significant
payroll tax reductions by holding on to the huge unemployment
insurance commission surplus. If they can increase the GST
component, they can lower income taxes closer to the OECD
25-nation average. In a nutshell, they can steal Reform's
thunder on excessive personal taxation.
For many years now, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture
(OFA) has worked to get farmers an exemption for the PST they
pay on farm-related purchases such as motor oil for tractors.
Sooner or later the PST and GST will be joined so now would be
a good time to renew lobbying on this front. For some time
there was talk of a card farmers could show when they purchase
farm inputs so they would be tax- exempt. If and when this
card becomes a reality the OFA should be front and centre in
making sure farmers no longer pay PST on farm-used inputs.
Both levels of government can read farmers' lips on the
GST-PST issue.
Hugh Zimmer farms in Oxford county.
Caught in the commodity mode?
I was intrigued by Dee Kramer's column in the April 9 Farm &
Country focusing on the antagonistic relationship between
today's farmers and consumers. Her message may not be very
palatable, but if she is correct, we producers need to rethink
our attitudes. As the saying goes, the customer is always
right, and Kramer is just that - a customer.
Farmers have traditionally been fiercely independent. While
this self-sufficiency may have been a survival tactic in the
past, it is not the way of the future. In this day and age, we
must move from being merely commodity producers to producers
of value-added products. We have become highly sophisticated
producers with an eye to efficiency. Our aim has been to be as
low-cost producers as possible. In a developed country such as
Canada, however, it is now time to step back and assess
whether we are on the right track. With our high input costs,
is it sensible to continue to produce commodities? Or is there
a better way? Namely, developing closer ties with the
consumer, and producing comestibles, not commodities?
Many of us still caught in the commodity mode will have to
change our mind-set, not to mention develop new skills. It may
not be possible to change course alone. Partnerships, co-ops,
or other structures will need to be developed. There will be
risks. But then there are risks in the status quo. It has been
easy to rely on the highly-centralized marketing structures
that have developed in many commodity groups over the past 50
years, but today these structures by their very size and
anonymity remove the producer from the messages that the
market sends. It's time to get closer to the customer and
remove or adapt the filters that keep producer and consumer
apart.
There is much to be learned from successful roadside stands
and farm stores. Here producers and consumers meet face to
face. Consumers are prepared to travel father and pay premium
prices for the assurances that the product is fresh, tastes
better, is organic, provides a day's outing, or whatever
happens to 'turn them on'. Farmers entering this kind of
business need to be prepared to do more than just grow the
food. Those who take the time and trouble to cultivate their
customers reap the rewards.
All producers need to think about Kramer's message with an
open mind. Some will choose to continue as they are today;
others will see options as she suggests. In some sectors, the
opportunities may be more easily identifiable than in others,
but the creative and innovative mind will not be deterred or
easily discouraged.
Just like the chef in her illustration, we too must become
multi-skilled, developing more than the talent to produce vast
quantities of homogeneous product for the non-discriminating
commodity market.
Virginia McLaughlin farms in York region.
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Farm registration numbers. Farmer registration is picking up
speed after coming to a standstill during the five-week
Ontario public service strike. Ontario Federation of
Agriculture registrations were down 20,000 due to a backlog
created by the strike. Mid-April, the OFA had received
registration forms from 18,583 farmers with 4,565 requesting
refunds of the $150 fee, which is voluntarily paid to farm
organizations. The refund rate was 24 per cent. OFA president
Tony Morris expected the number of cheques bound for the OFA
to increase dramatically after the strike settlement. Morris
said he hoped a lot of the backlog would have worked its way
out of OMAFRA and moved on to the OFA and the Christian
Farmers Federation of Ontario by the end of April. The CFFO,
the other provincial farm organization eligible to receive
legislated support from farmers, had received 2,576
registration forms in late April - 826 farmers had requested
refunds.
New slate at OACC. The Ontario Agricultural Commod ity Council has a new executive. David Alderman, who represents the Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board, is the new OACC chairman. Warkworth pork producer Wayne Newman, representing Ontario pork producers, and Simcoe's Ken Porteous, representing the province's tender fruit producers, are the new vice chairmen. The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association's Michael Mazur takes over the secretarial duties from Fred Brandenburg. The OACC is a coalition of 23 Ontario agricultural commodity associations, marketing boards and commissions committed to developing consensus on key issues facing provincial agriculture.
Royal gets new chief. David Garrick has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Garrick, who has spent the last eight years working for SkyDome Corporation, has served stints as vice president of marketing and vice president of corporate affairs. Before joining SkyDome he was president of the CN Tower, and general manager of the Canadian National Exhibition. He replaces Walter Pady, who announced his resignation last year.
Everything moves a little more slowly in the rural Ontario, including employment rates. Urban areas may climb high in employment opportunities during the good times, but they plunge lower than rural areas during economic decline. According to a Statistics Canada survey, cities enjoy the rewards of economic growth with lower unemployment levels, while rural areas are slower to react. In 1989, the end of the 1980s boom, the unemployment rate in the 25 largest urban areas fell to 6.7 per cent, while in rural areas it was 8.9 per cent.
The recession that followed brought urban unemployment rates up to 11.3 per cent by 1992, an increase of 4.4 percentage points, while rural unemployment only rose 2.7 to 11.6. The urban population represents 65 per cent of the population but suffered 84 per cent of the job losses. Having a smaller job market allows the rural population to avoid the extreme highs and lows of the urban job market, the survey said.
It was a trying year for Toronto Maple Leafs fans. The club
paid big bucks for an over-the-hill gang and had little to
show for it after an early playoff exit.
But if you can't win hockey games, you might as well keep your
corporate clients happy. Doug Gilmour, Leaf captain and milk
spokesman, managed to spin his feud with St. Louis Blues'
coach Mike Keenan into a cheese promotion.
"Send [Keenan] some cheese to go along with his whine,"
Gilmour told the Toronto Star. "He whines to the league, he
whines to the ref and then they get all those power plays."
The cheese pitch was perfectly timed. The debate about sales
restrictions on raw milk cheese was raging in the House of
Commons at the same time.
Doug Gilmour wasn't the only one talking cheese. The Commons
debate gave Bloc MP Paul Mercier the opportunity to do his
best Paul Verlaine impression:
"A minister rather naive,
Oh, could you so truly believe,
Cries, 'Death waits in the heart of all bries'.
So, must we banish from table all cheese,
That from raw milk be made,
Or 'tis a great price to be paid.
But unlike the cheeses he pleases to
Chase from our meals,
The minister himself is not raw.
Quite the contrary, he's well overcooked.
His death-to-cheese plan in Quebec is not brooked.
Our society distinct,
Will put up a stink,
Against this project most sinister,
Unless you withdraw it, oh minister.
Let hear it whomever it pleases,
We cry, 'We'll not go without our raw milk cheeses'."
When the Mad Cow Disease story broke late March, National
Cattlemen's Beef Association safety expert Gary Weber thought
the opportunity to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show would be
a chance to calm fears about the disease and sell a little
beef the same time.
But when the show went to air, most of Weber's comments,
assuring the audience that there was no BSE in the U.S. and
that the government has been taking steps for 10 years to
prevent the disease from entering the country, had been cut
out.
"We understand Dr. Weber's comments during the taping could
have reassured viewers about the safety of the U.S. beef
supply, but our side of the story was left on the editing room
floor," says the Iowa Cattlemen's Association's Kent
Pruismann.
It all started with a tour of New Holland's plant in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and today the farm equipment company
is official supplier to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Company spokesman Gene Hemphill says he got the idea while
chatting with the Olympics' "Director of Logistics", who was
visiting family in Lancaster, and dropped by the plant for a
tour. New Holland will supply up to 300 pieces of equipment,
including tractors, skid-steer loaders, commercial mowers,
loader-backhoes, and utility carts, as well as personnel.
The equipment will be used everywhere, from the tracks at
Olympic Stadium, to the beach volleyball courts. A long way
from the back 40.
When's the last time you heard of a newspaper bringing back
the farm beat?
It happened at the Sun Times in Owen Sound, and Bruce county
farm readers are the winners.
Long-time farm writer Jim Algie returns to his old beat, after
a stint at the desk writing editorials. Algie says the beats
have been reorganized into "pods" or "teams". Agriculture will
be part of the resource industry, business, and municipal
politics pod.
Whatever works.