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$82 Million Taken from Farmers Support Programs QUEEN’S PARK – Today Ernie Hardeman, Oxford MPP and PC critic for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs questioned the Minister of Agriculture on the $82 million dollars that was quietly reallocated from Business Rick Management Transfers, which funds support programs for farmers. “Our farmers are struggling to survive and being told by the government that there is no money to help them,” said Hardeman. “Then we find out that there was $82 million dollars that was intended to support farmers which the McGuinty government used for other priorities.” Ontario Estimates documents released with the 2008 Budget showed that Business Risk Management Transfers for 2008-2009 were $277,469,500. However, Public Accounts documents released this fall show that $82,600,000 of that money was quietly reallocated by Treasury Board of Cabinet away from the support program. “While you were telling farmers across this province there was nothing that you could do and all the money had been spent hog farmers, fruit and vegetable farmers and cattle farmers were struggling,” said Hardeman to the Minister. “They are losing their farms and you don't seem to care.” In her response the Minister acknowledged that the current business risk management programs are not working and that farmers are facing challenging times. “The Minister essentially said that there was money left over because the programs didn’t work and farmers in need didn’t qualify,” said Hardeman. “That isn’t a good enough answer – if the programs weren’t working the Minister should have fixed them or designed a new one to get that $82 million out to struggling farmers.”
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