Ontario Pre-budget Submissions from Sustain Ontario Members & Allies

Author: Karen Cronin

Posted: March 12, 2014

Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario

Update (19 March 2014): A summary of the submission from the Holland Marsh Growers’ Association has been added to the bottom of this post.

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How do we get financial support from the Ontario government for food security? One way is through a pre-budget submission.

Currently, the Ontario Ministry of Finance is asking individuals and organizations across the province to contribute their ideas to the 2014 provincial budget. The deadline to consult and provide a pre-budget submission is Friday, March 28, 2014. [Ed: Previous deadline was March 14.] The following summaries present some of the priorities proposed by some of our member and ally organizations.

The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO), a professional organization that supports family farmers, suggests the provincial government “stay the course” to balance the budget, and to not increase interest rates or decrease credit scores, as this would increase destabilization of the agricultural business sector. The CFFO suggests the province invest in “market intelligence resources”,  which is information relevant to the agricultural market  analyzed for the purpose of defining market opportunities, developing market strategies and tracking sector development. In order to achieve this, the CFFO would like the government to commit additional funds to agricultural trade opportunities, such as attracting new EU food makers to Ontario prior to an EU & US free trade agreement, and by providing foreign market information to help Ontario farmers to find opportunities in the expanding free-trade zones. Finally, the CFFO would like Ontario to further invest in infrastructure to improve food production, especially in the area of water management.

The National Farmers’ Union in Ontario (NFU-O) is pressing for economic and environmental investment. To ensure vibrant rural communities, NFU-O suggest the originally promised 75% of farmland property tax be fully funded, and recommend that municipalities reduce or maintain the farm property tax rate. In 1998, farm property tax changed to a preferred rate whereby 25% of farm property tax was to be funded by landowners and 75% by the province. Because the provincial contribution has been reduced over the years, rural municipalities have been forced to encourage sprawl and re-zone agricultural land in order to increase the property tax base, which is needed to fund services, such as schools and hospitals. If Ontario wants to keep prime agricultural land for food production, rural communities need to be able to access the same level of services enjoyed by urban communities, in order to attract new farmers and their families.

NFU-O’s environmental suggestions include:

• MPPs to be required to work with federal counterparts to stop Bill C-18;
• re-establishing and increasing funding for public plant breeding institutions and public researchers, and the resumption of public plant breeding to the variety level;
• reorienting Ontario’s agricultural laws towards the principles of Food Sovereignty, which include healthy food, ecological sustainability and democratic control;
• encouraging the adoption of a new Seed Law based on the NFU Principles for a Farmers’ Seed Act;
• the funding of independent research into the causes and problems related to the deaths of bees and wild pollinators during an immediate five-year moratorium of neonicotinoid seed treatments and field crop sprays.

The Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) believes that it is important for Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food to reinstate a person specifically dedicated to head the organic crop sector, in order to continue to grow the organic market, which is expanding more quickly than the overall economy. The word “organic” needs to be defined and added to policy, specifically in Agricultural Research, Production and Transition, in order for the sector to access funding as its own commodity.

Just as its name suggests, the Ontario Collaborative Group on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (OCGHEPA), the leader in the development of the Ontario Food and Nutrition Strategy, is recommending the province adopt a “Health in all Policies” approach to ensure that healthy eating and physical activity initiatives are a priority for all ministries. By following the Ontario Food Nutrition Strategy, the environment can be strengthened through a healthy and resilient food system, where activity and healthy eating are encouraged. Other supportive recommendations include:

• investment in a public communication strategy, such as the Ontario Food Nutrition Strategy, to promote health and healthy eating, access to safe, appropriate, healthy, culturally acceptable, local food and to decrease the healthcare burden;
• provision of information and the supportive environment to allow people to make healthy choices, via menu labeling with clear nutritional information, including nut content risk;
• an additional $3 million for 200 new breakfast/after-school meal programs;
• continued investment in breastfeeding support;
• improved access to quality physical activities;
• expansion of access to before and after school food programs for all Ontario children;
• improvements to the Day Nurseries Act;
• further provincial poverty reduction strategies, with attention to food and nutrition, such as the re-evaluation of the School Food and Beverage Policy to include not only food sold in schools, but food offered to students, and food in shops adjacent to schools;
• the monitoring, evaluation and appropriate updating of strategies.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) wants to see changes to the economy by investment in rural infrastructure in order to provide natural gas to rural farms which will help to greatly reduce production costs. Investment of $100 million should be dedicated to agri-research, to increase technology and for education and incentives supporting the adoption of new technology. This should include investment in the bio-economy, such as biomass opportunities to create energy and development of farm and processing by-products for green product development. By supporting and increasing public institutions’ ability to procure local food, and the ability of farmers to value-add (and thereby require further processing abilities in the province), the Agri-food challenge to create 120,000 jobs by 2020 may be met.

For the benefit of society, the OFA recommends:

• effort should be made to increase full-time employment and sustainable economic growth, while lowering income tax on low-income families, rather than increasing minimum wage, which the OFA believes is counterproductive to farmers;
• increasing food literacy through provincial curriculum enhancements;
• enhancing school nutrition programs to vulnerable and remote areas;
• increasing rural infrastructure for education, healthcare, childcare and other services;
• welfare be fine-tuned and social support payment claw-backs be reduced;
• better long-term care support;
• more affordable housing;
• predictable property tax assessments and increase provincial transfers to municipalities (property taxes should fund property services not fund citizens’ services);
• the funding cap on the Risk Management Program be reassessed and increased. A risk management program is a venue by which farmers can invest in farm inputs to increase competitiveness, and for certain investments, the government invests to help relieve some of the farmers’ burden of market risk.

Finally, the OFA asks for provincial regulatory renewal and policy, especially in the case of Bill 6, which they state is “redundant” as other statutes are already in place, and the Non-profit Corporate Act, which was instated to make non-profit corporations more transparent and accountable to members, which the OFA states “encroaches on rights” valued by its members, especially with regard to the elimination of geography-based directors. The OFA believes geographic representation plays an important role in the election of their directors and that proxy voting further expose them and like-minded organization to take-overs by special interest groups.

The Holland Marsh Grower’s Association (HMGA) issued a submission of their needs and hopes for this budget. Overall, they would like to see this budget refocus on both present concerns and how we will build a better future, setting aside current austerity measures and building programs and infrastructure that will benefit all Ontarians. The farmers of the HMGA would like to see farming prioritized at the Cabinet Table and the continued acknowledgment that farming and the food sector are vital to the growth and sustainability of the province. They would also like to see the continued support and growth of food processing, food service and food packaging industries. The HMGA suggests that more communication and collaboration about the farming industry is required between all ministries, and feel that the creation of a Rural Secretariat position would help to simplify definitions and coordinate legislation for rural and farming communities. The HGMA would like the provincial government to ensure that the important connection between food and farming to healthcare, the economy and research and innovation is recognized, and that food education programs and local food policies benefiting all Ontarians come from this budget.

 

These are just some of the pre-budget submission topics that affect the food security of Ontarians. We hope you will continue to think about what is important to you and how you and our members and allies can help the province prepare effective food policy.