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Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine

Grain Farmers of Ontario Acknowledges First Step in Business Risk Management Reform

Press release

GUELPH, ON (July 21, 2017) – Grain Farmers of Ontario commends federal, provincial and territorial agricultural leaders across Canada for supporting business risk management reform.

Today’s announcement of a comprehensive review of the current suite of business risk management programs is welcomed by Ontario’s grain farmers. The initiative was supported by Agricultural Ministers across the country at this week’s Federal-Provincial-Territorial meetings, held in Newfoundland.

“We thank Minister Leal for championing this issue,” says Mark Brock, Chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario. “Reliable risk management programs are not just about disaster relief – having appropriate tools to manage risk enables farmers, like myself, to invest in innovations on the farm benefiting the economy, environment, and our province as a whole.”

With today’s announcement also came unexpected news of reductions to AgriInvest. The changes made to AgriInvest were a unilateral decision made by the federal government.

“The cuts to AgriInvest underline the critical need for ongoing collaboration between policy-makers and agricultural organizations,” continues Brock. “With the exception of Crop Insurance, AgriInvest is the only program, within the suite of risk management programs, that works well for our farmer-members and we hope for much more appropriate and effective steps forward through this review process.”

Grain Farmers of Ontario is disappointed that the federal government has adjusted this important program, ahead of the comprehensive review of the whole suite of programs. As the review process moves forward, it is critical that effective programs, like AgriInvest, do not suffer. Options coming out of the review are scheduled to be presented July 2018.

Grain Farmers of Ontario

Grain Farmers of Ontario is the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean and wheat farmers. The crops they grow cover 6 million acres of farm land across the province, generate over $2.5 billion in farm gate receipts, result in over $9 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 40,000 jobs in the province.

Contact:

Mark Brock, Chair – 519-274-3297; cropper01@hotmail.com

Deb Conlon, Manager, Government Relations – 416-805-4490; dconlon@gfo.ca

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Grain Farmers of Ontario
Grain Farmers of Ontario is the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers. The crops they grow cover over 6 million acres of farm land across the province, generate over $4.1 billion in production value, result in over $27 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 90,000 jobs in the province.