For Release: May 20, 2005

Meetings To Focus On Future Of Agri-Food Sector
Premier's Summit Advisory Committee To Host Sessions

TORONTO - The Ontario government is working to ensure a sustainable future for the province's agri-food industry by developing a new vision for the sector, Minister of Agriculture and Food Steve Peters announced today.

"As we all know, Ontario's agri-food industry is going through a great deal of change," said Peters. "While we are addressing immediate concerns, we also need to look to the future, and where the industry needs to be."

Peters today announced that a series of nine stakeholder meetings will be held across the province to identify future directions to stabilize the industry and make it prosperous into the next century. The first meeting will be held in Casselman on July 4. The meetings will be organized by the Premier's Summit Advisory Committee and are the next step in the development of a new vision for agriculture in Ontario.

In advance of the meetings a discussion document will be posted on the ministry website for comment from the public. The information gathered will be used in the creation of Ontario's vision for the agri-food sector that will be brought forward for discussion at the second annual summit later this year.

"With the leadership of the Premier's Summit Advisory Committee, we are confident that this process will result in a strong vision," noted Peters. "A vision that reflects a modern, vibrant and growing agri-food sector in which participants - from the farm gate to the dinner plate - can prosper."

The committee was given the mandate to provide advice to the Premier on what a new vision for the agri-food sector should be at the Premier's first annual summit on agri-food, last December. The advisory committee members are, Jane Graham, Greg Hannam, John Kikkert, Deb Lethbridge, Don Mills, and Carol Tyler.

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Contact:
Susan McConnell
Minister's Office
416-326- 6439