Governments supporting economic recovery of Ontario farmers

Over 600 projects to support Ontario’s economic recovery in three priority areas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 22, 2021

PORT DOVER – The Governments of Ontario and Canada are investing $7.3 million through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help support farmers and agri-food businesses. The investment will fund projects in priority areas that increase food safety, accelerate sector innovation and help farmers bring new products to market to grow their businesses.

Locally, 16 projects in Haldimand-Norfolk were approved for $222,428 in funding.

“Producing safe, high quality food is important for Ontario producers to stay competitive in a global market,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “With Haldimand and Norfolk being leading food producers this funding is especially important.”

Provincially, this funding supports more than 600 cost-shared projects that strengthen Ontario’s agri-food sector by helping eligible farmers in over 270 communities across the province to continue producing safe, high quality food in Ontario.

“Supporting Ontario’s farmers and agri-food businesses to be more competitive by increasing their ability to innovate is key to strengthening the agri-food sector,” said the Honourable Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister. “Building resiliency within our agri-food sector will help keep our province’s food supply strong and more able to adapt to challenges in the future.”

Positive outcomes of projects funded under this intake include:

  • Improvement of food safety systems on farms to meet or exceed national and international certification standards;
  • Development of products that will open new sales markets for farm businesses for example, a new organic pepper product to expand markets or developing maple butter as a new, value-added farm product;
  • Planting cover crops to improve soil health and reduce soil erosion losses over winter;
  • Increasing preventative measures to help reduce pest damage at greenhouse operations; and
  • Upgrades to animal-handling equipment to improve animal welfare and reduce disease transmission on livestock farms.

Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed over $100 million in cost-share support to more than 5,000 projects through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow.

QUICK FACTS

  • The Canadian Agricultural Partnership is a five-year, $3 billion investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen the agriculture and agri-food sector, ensuring continued innovation, growth and prosperity. This commitment includes $2 billion for programs that are cost-shared by the federal and provincial and territorial governments and are designed and delivered by provinces and territories.
  • This cost-share funding is supporting projects in the following key priority areas:
    • Protection and assurance to reinforce the foundation for public trust in the sector through improved assurance systems in food safety and plant and animal health.

  • In Ontario, cost-share programming to support farmers and other businesses through the Partnership is delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA).
  • The Ontario agri-food sector supports more than 860,000 jobs in Ontario and contributes more than $47.3 billion each year to the province’s economy.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The Canadian Agricultural Partnership in Ontario

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association

 

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