Provincial agriculture minister Noble Villeneuve
wants to find money for Ontario's ethanol industry,
and he's prepared to dip into the safety net pool
to get it.
At last month's Ontario Federation of Agriculture
(OFA) convention in Toronto, Villeneuve deputized
former agriculture deputy minister Clayton Switzer
to help find money for  the fledgling Ontario
industry.
Villeneuve, a long-time ethanol supporter who sat
around  Glengarry farmer Francis Chretien's kitchen
table when plans for the Seaway Valley Farmers
plant in Cornwall were being drafted, says he's
determined to find alternate funding sources for
the industry within his ministry's budget.
It will be Switzer's job to look in every crevice
of the ministry's vault to find the cash. But
Switzer won't have to look for long if Villeneuve
allows him to dip into the provincial safety net
money.
"We are faced with a rather healthy situation that
we have good grain crops and we are not going to
have a lot  of claims on our safety nets."
Villeneuve told Farm & Country after he addressed
OFA delegates. 
"We hope to be able to find some (money) there."
About an hour earlier, the minster announced he
would proceed with his campaign to increase crop
coverage under the Gross Revenue Insurance Program
(GRIP) from 80 to 85 per cent for 1996.
Before the last round of budget cuts, Villeneuve
said his ministry was too strapped for cash to make
good on ethanol funding promises made by the former
NDP government.
The New Democrats had promised the Commercial
Alcohols plant at Tiverton $5 million, and the
Seaway Valley Farmers Energy Co-operative $3
million, to pioneer Ontario's ethanol industry.
Switzer, currently chairman of the Environment
ministry's Pesticide Advisory Committee, is
expected to report back to Villeneuve some time
this month.
"I think Clay is ideal for this task, and I'm
looking forward to discussing the results of his
fact-finding mission." - BT
   

back