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For Immediate Release
September 4, 2007

MCGUINTY GOVERNMENT HELPING FARMERS SECURE A BRIGHTER FUTURE

$55 Million In Cost Recognition Top-Up Payments Flow To Farmers

GUELPH - The McGuinty government has followed through on its promise to deliver a Cost Recognition Top-Up Program meaning approximately 30,000 Ontario farmers will begin receiving their cheques in the next few days, Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, announced today.

The $55-million Ontario Cost Recognition Top-Up Program is a 40-per-cent matching provincial contribution to the federal cost of production payment program outlined in the most recent federal budget. Ontario is the only province participating on a cost share basis in this $400-million national program.

"Our government is committed to strengthening business risk management programs for Ontario's agriculture sector," said Dombrowsky. "We are also making strategic investments in research, innovation and marketing and branding to better position Ontario's farmers in the marketplace."

The last few years have been difficult for many producers and the Cost Recognition Top-Up Program was developed to help deal with rising costs and diminishing farm net incomes. It builds on the more than $1 billion to support farm income in Ontario that the province has provided since 2003.

Since the Cost Recognition Top-Up Program was announced on June 8, Agricorp has been working with both federal and provincial governments to coordinate data and deliver the program in a timely manner.

The Ontario Cost Recognition Top-Up program is just one more example of how, working together, Ontarians are achieving results and building a successful future for the province's agriculture sector. Other examples include:

  • Investing $10 million in a strategy to raise consumer awareness and promote consumption of Ontario-grown and processed foods.
  • Providing a three-year pilot Risk Management Program, a price support program designed to offset losses caused by low grain and oilseed commodity prices. The program, which will begin with the 2007 crop year, was designed in consultation with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and representatives of the grain and oilseed sector.
  • Providing $2.5 million in 2006-07 to a number of Ontario agri-food organizations that fund marketing initiatives for Ontario farm products, and $200,000 to the Organic Council of Ontario, which promotes industry development activities.
  • Recognizing innovation in the province's agriculture sector by creating the five-year, $2.5-million Premier's Awards for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence. In 2007, 55 awards totaling $425,000 were presented at events across the province.
  • Providing $12.5 million to the Vineland Research and Innovations Centre Incorporated. The federal government is making a financial and in-kind commitment valued at $15.5 million over the next five years towards research projects that support the mission of this new Centre at Vineland. These are the first steps in creating a vital hub for horticultural science and innovation in Vineland by making it a model for research facilities elsewhere in the province and the country.

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Contacts:
Kelly Synnott
Minister's Office
416-326-6439

Brent Ross
Communications Branch
416-326-9342

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