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Province Comes to Aid of Ontario Beef Sector
December
14, 2007 (Guelph, ON) – The Ontario Cattlemen’s
Association (OCA) is pleased today with news that the
McGuinty government will be providing immediate
assistance to the cattle, hog and horticultural
industries in Ontario. All three industries have been in
crisis since mid-summer.
“I
would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank
The Honourable Dwight Duncan for acknowledging the need
in our sector. I
also want to recognize and thank The Honourable Leona
Dombrowsky, Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food
and Rural Affairs for her hard work in ensuring that our
producers find some relief from this serious financial
situation,” states Ian McKillop, OCA President.
“The Minister has shown a dedication and
commitment to our industry from Day One and we’re
extremely thankful for this latest funding. I would also like to thank our Premier, The Honourable
Dalton McGuinty. It is very encouraging to see his
government take a leadership role in recognizing the
financial hurt that producers are currently
suffering.”
The
announcement, which came yesterday in Ontario’s 2007 Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review by The
Honourable Dwight Duncan, Ontario Minister of Finance, will
infuse $150 million into agriculture “to strengthen
competitiveness”, with $100 million going directly to
cattle and hog producers and $30 million going directly
to horticulture producers.
“For cattle producers, the timing of our latest
crisis has been especially poor,” continues McKillop.
“In many ways, these circumstances are worse than the
industry endured as a result of BSE.
The big difference now, is that every sector from
the processor to the cow/calf producer is losing money.
We estimate that Ontario beef producers have lost
well over $100 million in the last six months of
2007.”
While all the details have not yet been
finalized, the following information was included with
the announcement:
•
Distribution similar to Cost of Production (CoP)
payments
•
12% average
of Allowable Net Sales (2000-2004) for those producers
who have greater than 50% of their sales in cattle and
hogs
•
A cap of $3M for individual producers
•
No application should be necessary if a producer was
included in CoP payment
“We expect
this announcement to distribute $40 million to beef
farmers in Ontario,” McKillop adds.
“Agricorp
will deliver payments and we anticipate cheques to begin
arriving in February, 2008.”
Further
calculation information on payment amounts will be
available through Agricorp.
For more
information contact:
Ian McKillop, OCA President: (519) 868-4202
Dave Stewart, OCA Executive Director:
(519) 824-0334
Lianne Appleby, Ontario Cattlemen’s Association: (519)
824-0334
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