Yesterday, farmers from across Ontario gathered at Queen’s Park to voice their anger at how the government has been treating them.

There was a strong local contingent among those taking their message to the Premier and the Liberal government as part of the One Voice March. Joe Hickson, a cash crop and seed producer from the Lindsay area was one of the speakers at the rally. He presented the farmers’ creed.

Dalton McGuinty made promises to Ontario’s farmers. Promises he has not kept. He promised to guarantee a strong Ministry of Agriculture and Food and to give rural communities a voice. But that has not happened. The Ministry of Agriculture has not been standing up for farmers. Instead of helping farmers, the McGuinty government has made their lives more difficult.

Dalton McGuinty needs to understand that there is a farm income crisis in Ontario. It is a crisis that his government has helped to create. The Liberals have increased regulatory costs and placed burdens on farmers that limit their ability to operate viable farm operations.

The financial crisis has reached a critical level. Farmers can’t spread themselves any thinner. Farming has got to, at least, cover its costs – but that is not happening, and many farmers are losing money. They cannot even afford to put their crops into the ground.

Farmers are on the brink of losing their farms. Help lines have been deluged with calls from depressed and desperate farmers who see no hope for the future. Many have maxed out their lines of credit, and their credit cards trying to keep their farms going, but they have reached the wall.

It is not often that farmers take matters into their own hands in this way, but circumstances have become so dire that farmers have had no choice but to act, to preserve their way of live and their livelihoods.

This rally must serve as a wake-up call for the government. The Liberal government is sitting idly by while farmers are losing their farms and their livelihood. Ontario farmers cannot continue to subsidize Ontario’s food supply any longer.

Ontario’s farmers are asking the provincial government to start paying attention to farms and farmers. Agriculture and related industries are responsible for 650,000 jobs and make a huge contribution to Ontario’s economy. The survival of our rural communities depends on a strong agricultural sector.

The Farmers want action from the Dalton McGuinty government. They are asking that the government take seven immediate steps to address this farm income crisis:

1) Providing a cash payment of new money to grains and oilseeds farmers of $300 million to allow planting of crops this year.
2) Delivering promised funding to tobacco growers ensuring an orderly transition to other crops.
3) Commit to extending the Self-Directed Risk Management Program for horticulture farmers until a suitable program is developed.
4) Delaying implementation of the NMA and Regulations and enforcement.
5) Ensuring the CAIS program delivers real income support and administratively flows in a timely way.
6) Eliminating Water Taking Permit Administrative fees for agricultural use.
7) Delay legislation and regulations that will economically burden farmers until outstanding issues are resolved e.g.: Greenbelt, Deer and Elk, water testing in Rural Ontario.

I will be working alongside my caucus colleagues to hold the McGuinty government accountable, and to keep up the pressure in the days and weeks following the rally.