Save our schools
It's a simple formula -100 square feet per pupil and 25 students per classroom. But what was intended to be simple math now looks more like rocket science. When it comes to rural Ontario, many have compared the provincial government's education funding formula to putting a square peg in a round hole. It won't fit.But what is quite obvious to the average Grade 10 geometry student hasn't seemed to sink in at Queen's Park.
Rural and community groups have asked the government to
reconsider its
policy, saying it unfairly targets rural schools. They've marched
down main
street in rural communities; taken buses to Queen's Park; and
posted "SAVE
OUR SCHOOL" signs in small towns across the province. Is anybody
listening?
One person who has spent a lot of time pondering both sides of the argument is Abby Armstrong, chairperson of the Avon Maitland school board, which administrates 59 schools in Perth and Huron counties.
The new funding formula has landed most school board administrators in a tough spot. Charged with doing the province's dirty work when it comes to cutting costs, board representatives also have to deal face-to-face with parents in local communities. It's not an easy job, says Armstrong, a mother of four who farms with her husband near Bayfield.
"We've been involved in a pretty public fight against the government. They're fighting likewise to prove our numbers are wrong."
School board representatives have the ammunition, but so far the government appears unwilling to listen. Small schools in rural areas are often below capacity and defy the economy-of-scale logic that the province applies to school funding.
But rural Ontario needs these schools, says Armstrong. Without small schools, children will spend even more time riding buses. Too many are already riding more than two hours a day, she says. Board officials and parents also find it hard to understand why the government wants to close schools that educate for less - the Avon Maitland board spends about $6,000 per student, compared to $9,000 for Toronto schools.
Then there's the impact school closures have on the community. People won't move to rural communities if you close schools, says Agnes Denham, who farms with her husband just south of St. Marys. Denham, who marched with more than 500 parents and children in Stratford last month to protest rural school closures, wants equal funding for schools across the province. "It's not just a case of square footage," she says.
Denham says more time is needed to study the impact of closing rural classrooms. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture is lobbying the government to adopt a two-year moratorium on closings.
School boards already face a government-imposed Dec. 31 deadline to announce which schools must close down. That deadline could be extended to March, but no further, says Armstrong.
School board administrators such as Armstrong say the process has gone too far to turn back now. Unless the government comes up with more money during a moratorium, school boards won't be able to afford to keep schools open.
Despite having 59 schools spread over 6,000 square miles of Huron and Perth counties, the Avon Maitland board doesn't qualify for rural-remote school grants. With 19 schools with fewer than 250 students, the board receives only $60,000 in small school grants.
"There's not a lot of time. Changes pretty much have to come from
this
[government]," says Armstrong, who has a very simple message for
parents:
"If you're worried about your kids, and we know you are, you must
fight for
them now." - Bernard Tobin
back
Rainforth retires
Jim Rainforth, secretary of both the Ontario Tender Fruit
Producers' and
Grape Growers' Marketing Boards, has retired from both
organizations after
21 years in the business.
Rainforth says that in the case of both boards, his job has been "fun, with great people to work with." But he admits there have been plenty of challenges along the way: "I wouldn't say it's been a cakewalk."
He says both boards have always had the benefit of good leadership from elected officials and that relations with industry partners and government have been "cordial and positive," even when stiff competition in the industry made that a challenge.
In a letter included with the October tender fruit newsletter,
Rainforth
thanked growers for the opportunity of working with them and
suggested that
while grower numbers may decline over time, "your industry has a
solid
future." - Christina Selby
back
Landlord loophole?
OMAFRA is considering a request from the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture
to require landlords to obtain a farmer's signature before they
could put
that farmer's registration number on their annual registration
form.
Currently, landlords who rent land to farmers do not need the farmer's signature on the registration form to prove the farmer is renting the land.
The OFA fears that landlords could continue to use a farmer's registration number even though they no longer rent land to that farmer. The registration number allows a landlord to class rental income as farm income and help qualify for a lower property tax rate.
Bill Mantel, OMAFRA manager of farm business registration, says the ministry has tried to simplify the registration process and recently dropped the signature requirement. But if producers feel it's a concern, the ministry will look at re-instating it.
Registration forms continue to trickle in to both the OFA and Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario offices.
As of Sept. 30, the OFA reported it had received registrations from 48,622 farm businesses, up from 46,690 for the same time the previous year. The farm lobby also reported that its membership had swelled to 41,897, a 3,847 increase, linked mainly to a lower refund rate - 13.8 per cent of farmers have asked for their money back compared to 18.5 per cent one year ago.
The CFFO is also reporting increased membership. As of Oct. 25,
CFFO had
net membership of 4,126 and had seen its refund rate drop to 23
per cent,
down from 30. - Bernard Tobin
back
Land prices grounded
Lower commodity prices and turmoil in the world economy are
softening
demand for Ontario farmland.
In its semi-annual farmland value trend report, the Farm Credit Corporation estimates Ontario farmland prices increased just 2.7 per cent during the first six months of 1998, down from an 8.2-per cent increase in the first half of 1997. See Land Values.
"I think we'll see the market move sideways," says Tom Nolan, FCC's Agri-Land eastern appraisals manager. With rock-bottom interest rates and farm commodity demand beginning to re-awaken in Asia, there is reason to believe that land prices won't head too far south, says Nolan, but the odds are also stacked against price increases.
With poor grains and oilseeds prices and hog producers riding out a price trough, the market has been quiet. Nolan says slower price growth during the first six months of the year can be linked to a poor price outlook last spring and dry growing conditions.
Land prices have trended upwards in areas of urban influence, but high-priced dairy quota moderated prices in eastern and central Ontario, the FCC reports.
Nolan feels demand could increase in 1999 if hog prices improve
as they
are expected to mid-year, and crop prices rebound. But with the
possibility
of another GATT scare as the next round of trade negotiations get
underway,
and economic troubles in Russia, Nolan says he would rather avoid
land
price predictions. - Bernard Tobin
back
Terminator queries
Finding its way through a maze of biotechnology information has
proven a
trying task for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.
In July, the federation put a committee together to provide direction on how the organization should deal with the issue of germination-inhibiting technology or what is commonly known as the terminator gene.
After some heated moments at director meetings, perspective from industry speakers and the fact finding mission of its biotechnology committee, the OFA has decided to turn the terminator issue over to its own environment committee and the Agriculture Biotechnology Coalition (ABC), a group with representatives from OFA, the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, industry, academia and government.
"There's a lot of implications and nobody understands them all, so we should look at it more," said Lynn Girty, representing Ontario seed corn growers at the OFA directors' meeting last month.
But the OFA did deal with fears that farmers in the biotechnology era would not be able to save seed for their own use. A resolution from Simcoe country had asked the OFA to adopt the principle that progeny of all crops and animals are the exclusive property of the farmer.
Norfolk fruit grower Ken Porteous, reporting on ABC committee findings, told the meeting that plant breeders' rights legislation adopted in the early 1990s protects a farmer's right to save seed after harvest to plant the following spring.
Members of the OFA board had expressed concern that companies would soon seek patents on biotech breakthroughs and force farmers to pay for the use of all technology.
Porteous pointed out that the patenting of life forms is not currently allowed in Canada. He said that the federal government will eventually have to deal with the issue, "because we will not have access to plant material and animal genetics if we do not protect the right of inventors."
But Porteous cautioned that farmers must insist that the same safeguards granted to farmers under Plant Breeders' Rights must be extended to patent laws if they are amended.
That will be a very public debate, he said, adding that the OFA
will have
input in federal legislation through its affiliation with the
Canadian
Federation of Agriculture. - Bernard Tobin
back
Vital information
Ensuring farmers get quick assistance during a crisis is the aim
of a
program to place more than 1,500 Emergency Tubes on Simcoe county
farms
over the next year. Area insurance agents are distributing the
tubes while
conducting their annual renewals and reviews.
The weather-resistant ABS tubes hold forms and maps that - when completed by residents - direct firefighters and other emergency personnel to vital locations on the farm, such as water sources, breaker panels, bedrooms and hazards such as fuels, pesticides and compressed gases. Provincial emergency personnel know to look for the tube and its reflecting label three metres off the ground on the farm's main electrical pole, says Andrew Graham, program adviser with Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
Easy-to-follow instructions are included in the tubes, which were developed to support emergency planning procedures promoted by the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan.
Details: Your local federation, or Ontario Soil and Crop
Improvement Association
(1-800-265-9751). - Richard Charteris
back
Beef duty danger
The threat by the U.S. of mandatory labelling for imported beef
has been
defused for now. But it hasn't brought sighs of relief from
Canadian
cattlemen.
While U.S. Congress has agreed to study the measure further before considering putting it into law, American ranchers have filed a petition for a trade investigation into Canadian cattle imports. If the U.S. government grants this request, beef producers in Canada fear the countervail battle that Canada's pork industry fought with the U.S. for nearly a decade will be repeated.
Canada consistently proved that the pork countervail was unfair. Still, the costly duty remained in place for nearly 10 years. Some industry officials have blamed the countervail for the long decline that Ontario's pork industry suffered through the late 1980s and early '90s.
Like the pork industry, Canada's beef producers are heavily
dependent on
sales to the U.S., where nearly 90 per cent of Canada's beef
trade goes. -Don Stoneman
back
Five of a kind
Five of a kind is what Rhonda Lichti found when she walked out to
the
sheep barn in mid-October. Lichti, who herds about 95 sheep with
her
husband Robert and family east of Monkton, got the quints from a
Dorset-Suffolk cross ewe. The Lichtis are aiming to produce three
crops in
two years from the 30-ewe flock on the farm they bought last
year. It's the
second set of quints that have been born on the farm, but not all
were born
alive in the last litter. - Don Stoneman
back