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Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine

Grain Farmers of Ontario and Grain Growers of Quebec Request an Immediate Meeting with Federal Ministers to Discuss Propane Shortage

Guelph, ON (November 20, 2019) – Grain Farmers of Ontario and Producteurs de Grains du Québec/Grain Growers of Quebec are requesting to meet with the federal Minister of Agriculture, Marie-Claude Bibeau, and Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, immediately to address the urgent need to resume the delivery of propane.

“We need to sit down with the Ministers of Agriculture and Transport immediately to determine how grain farmers can access propane today,” said Markus Haerle, Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. “Farmers cannot wait for days for this propane stoppage, we need solutions today — the viability of our crops depend on it.”

“Our farmers need propane to dry their corn as it comes off of the field. We need the government‘s help now to find solutions right away to this propane stoppage facing every one of our grain farmers,” said Christian Overbeek, President of the Grain Growers of Quebec.

Both groups are asking their members to contact their local Members of Parliament to let them know their particular situation.

The CN strike comes at a time when farmers are dealing with one of the most difficult harvests they have seen in decades. A very wet harvest season with early snow and cold means that farmers are even more reliant on propane-powered grain dryers to condition the crop as it comes off of the field.  The weather this crop season leaves much of the majority of farmers still harvesting and the need for propane to dry crops is today to avoid significant loss and damage. 

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.

Producteurs de Grains du Québec/Grain Growers of Quebec
Founded in 1975, and established under the Professional Syndicates Act, the organization Grain Growers of Quebec (formerly the Quebec Federation of Commercial Crop Producers) is made up of 14 grain producers’ unions. Distributed in all regions of Quebec, these unions include more than 11,000 grain producers. The Grain Growers of Quebec work in collaboration with many agricultural organizations in Quebec and Canada and are affiliated to the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA).

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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.