Barrett pays tribute to farmers during Farm Safety Week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 25, 2015

QUEEN’S PARK – Toby Barrett, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Opposition Critic for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, paid tribute to volunteers in the Norfolk Farm Safety Association in the Ontario Legislature on Tuesday.

Canadian Agricultural Safety Week is the third week of March every year. This year’s theme is “Be the Difference”, encouraging individuals and organizations to make a difference in farm safety.
“The strength of agriculture in Ontario lies in our farm organizations,” Barrett said in his statement. “The most important meetings to attend are the farm safety meetings. It’s all about prevention, and prevention of accidents.”
A former president of the Norfolk Farm Safety Association, Barrett mentioned some of the farmers working to create a safer environment when he was involved.
“It was a wonderful group of dedicated, very knowledgeable farmers,” he said in the Legislature. “We’d sit around the table with people like Hertha Totzke, representing apples; Annie Zaluski, a strawberry grower; Robin Opersko, vegetables; Martin Splinter, representing dairy; and Steve O’Dwyer, wheat and cash crops.”
Barrett recalled at one of the sessions he attended beef producer Ken Kelly talked about stress when interest rates were around 20 per cent back in the 1980s. Working day and night, Kelly accidentally walked into a power take-off.
“He explained to us that if you think you’ve got a lot of problems in farming and then you walk into a PTO and lose your arm, that puts everything in perspective,” Barrett said.
More information on Canadian Agricultural Safety Week is available at http://www.agsafetyweek.ca/

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For more information,
Contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org