FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Aug. 8, 2019
SIMCOE – The Ontario government is helping farmers improve their business operations, so they can continue to play an important role in boosting the province’s economy and produce some of the safest, highest quality foods in the world.
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ernie Hardeman, announced a commitment of up to $10.8 million in cost-share funding to eligible farmers and agri-food businesses to complete more than 740 projects to enhance their businesses.
Included among these are 22 projects in Haldimand-Norfolk. These local projects will see investments of up to $512,333.
“Nothing stands still, certainly in the business of farming,” said Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett. “Things will only accelerate in the future. This assistance is there to help operations to continue to stay up to speed.”
Through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (the Partnership), these initiatives will support improvements in areas such as, enhancing traceability systems, upgrades to animal-handling equipment and stepped-up biosecurity measures.
Some examples of projects supported through this programing include:
- Building or using new technologies to improve housing of farm animals;
- Developing new products to support retaining, growing or finding new markets for farm commodities;
- Improving the food safety-traceability systems on farms to meet or exceed international certification standards.
“Our government is committed to making our agricultural and agri-food sector open for business,” said Ernie Hardeman, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “Investing in these projects will help our farmers succeed while boosting innovation, productivity, and competitiveness for the entire sector.”
Since June 2018, both the federal and provincial governments have committed cost-share support to almost 1,900 projects through the Partnership to help eligible Ontario farmers, processors, businesses and sector organizations innovate and grow.
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For more information, contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-0446 or toby.barrett@pc.ola.org