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Queen's Park Report Doüg Moffatt, MPI* Durham East TORY FARM BILL IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH > Obviously the government of • this province is not ' ititerested in helping the fariner. A few weeks ago it copped out on, the basic issue ' of preserving agricultural land. Now Agricultural Minister Minister William Newman has brought down a Farm Income Stabilization Act which, in the words of one farm spokesman, spokesman, "Isn't worth the paper its written on". With farmers rioting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa you'd think that the Tories in Ontario might have started to treat farm issues more seriously. seriously. But they haven't learned a thing. • Farming has -, become a hazardous occupation in this country. Bedevilled with a boom-bust economy, farmers have seen wholesale food prices fluctuate wildly while their production costs have steadily increased. Many far : mers have gone broke. Many have been forced to take a second job so that they can sustain their families. Some 4o per cent of them have left the land altogether in the last decade. ' In response to this acute distress, the Tories have produced an insultingly inad equate piece of legislation, their Farm Income Stabilization Stabilization Act. Built along the lines of the Liberal program in Ottawa, itself denounced as worthless, the Tory program is not what organized agriculture agriculture in Ottawa has demanded demanded ; nor is it what the farmers need. And certainly it is not what we in the NDP have been pressing for. First a clear distinction must be made between farm income stablization and farm income insurance, which has already been implemented in B.C. and Quebec, which is under consideration by two or three other provinces ' and which has been advocated in Ontario by the Federation of Agriculture, by the National Farmers Union - and by us. income stablization as operated operated by the Liberals in Ottawa and now proposed by the Tories in Ontario is only a "stop loss" program. It proposes to subsidize farm prices from the public treasury treasury whenever they drop below 90 per cent of the average of the last five years. Since farm costs - taxes, gasoline, oil, hydro, machinery, machinery, fertilizer, etc. - increase every year, prices averaged oyer the past five years are both irrelevant and inad equate. And to take only 90 per cent of those costs as the base on which to calculate this year's prices is to add . insult to injury. (The injury is not alleviated much by the vague promise that this year's costs of production will be taken into account.) In short, farm income stablization stablization is designed to - keep farmers from going broke altogether ; but it is certainly not going to keep them from forsaking the land. In contrast, farm income insurance is a program whereby whereby provincial and federal governments enter into equal partnership with farmers to build an insurance fund. Farm prices would be negotiated negotiated each year " by govern- - ment and by the appropriate farm organization so that the costs of production are covered, covered, plus a fair return on investment, management and labour. When market prices drop below the negotiated price for any commodity, the difference will be made up to the farmer from the fund. Just as crop insurance covers loss of crops, so income insurance compensate for loss of income resulting from falling commodity prices. Obviously, from this point forward, the sloppy interchange interchange of the words stablization and insurance in reference to THE REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF DURHAM PUBLIC NOTICE ; . ■ ■ P' 1- ' ' TAKE NOTICE th&t the council of the Regional Municipality of Durham, acting as the Planning Board for the Regional Municipality of Durham, pursuant to Section 62 of the Regional Municipality of Durham Act, will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, June 29,1976 at 10:00 a.m. and if necessary on Wednesday, June 30, 1976 at 10:00 a.m. in the Council Chambers at the Regional Headquarters Building, 605 Rossland Road East,, Whitby, Ontario for the purpose of obtaining the participation and co-operation of the inhabitants of the Region of Durham in determining the .solution of matters affecting the development of the Region of Durham and shall receive and consider the Draft Official Plan for the Région of Durham as prepared by the Planning and Development Committee of the Régional Municipality of Durham and to make a recommendation for the adoption of the Draft Official Plan for the Region of Durham to the Regional Council for forwarding tq the Ontario Minister of Housing for his approval as the Official Plan for the Regional Municipality of Durham. A, meeting of Regional Council will be held immediately following receipt of à recommendation from the Planning Board for the purpose of considering the recommendation and to pass a by-law for the adoption of the Official Plan. Copies of the text of the Draft Official Plan may be obtained on or after Thursday, June 24,1976 from the Clerk of the Regional Municipality of Durham at the Regional Headquarters Building, 605 Rossland Road East, VVhitby, Ontario; the Department of Planning and Development for the Region at 105 Consumers Drive, Whitby, Ontario; the Office of the Clerk of the Area Municiplaities . of the City of Oshawa» Towns of Ajax, Newcastle (Bowmanville), Pickering and Whitby and the Townships of Brock ( Beaverton), Scugog (Port Perry), and Uxbridge and at the Municipal Offices in Hampton and Sunderland. Maps related to the text of the Draft Official Plan may be viewed at any of the above offices. Further information concerning the above matter may be obtained from Mr. J. Moyer, Manager of Administrative Services, Department of Planning and Development, 105 Consumers Drive, Whitby, Ontario, (416) 668-7731, C.W. Lundi, A.M.C.T. Clerk Regional Municipality of Durham 605 Rossland Road East, Whitby, Ontario * farm income should cease, for they are distinctly différé ent concepts. The NDP opposes opposes farm income stablization stablization because it is a sop, a stop-loss measure. The NDP pioneered farm income insurance insurance in British Columbia, It has been duplicated in Quebec. It is the program advanced by organized agriculture agriculture in Ontario. Farm income insurance promises, at long last, to establish agriculture on an economically economically sound basis, which is why the NDP supports it. The limited scope of coverage coverage by farm income stablization stablization under this bill in Ontario should be noted as well. It will cover only 12 - 15 per cent of farm production, based on value. As Gordon Hill, President President of the OFA, has stated "Preliminary calculations indicate indicate that 87 per cent Of Ontario farm products will not be eligible for support under the legislation, and Orono Weekly Times, June 16, 1976 - 5 that, to say the least, is highly 2.; Effective supply manage- discriminatory". ment programs so that To stabilize farm income adequate prices will not the NDP believes that a lead to undue food surplus- three-fold program is needed : • es: and 1. A farm income insurance 1 Regular funding to assure program. ■ * (continued to page 7) BIRTHS' The Chairman and members of the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority are pleased (at last) to announce the arrival on Friday and Saturday, June nth and 12th, 1976 of quintuplets, signet swans. They being the pleased and pleasant combination of a "Royal Romance" between the pair of swans presented to the Authority to commemorate the occasion of the Official Opening of the Cobourg. Conservation Area by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday, June 27th, 1973. ORDER NOW! THE 2549 LINE (BRAZIL) BALER TWINE . OUR TOP QUALITY FIELD PROVEN BALER TWINE 40 lb./ BALE 10.000 FT. SISAL TWINE DURHAM FARMERS' COUNTY 983-5102