A provincial agriculture-focused omnibus bill to modernize Ontario’s legislation that manages farm groups and commodities will be introduced this spring.

“We’re optimistic; we’re hopeful that by the end of April we will be before the house and I’ll be standing in my place debating this bill,” Trevor Jones, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and agri-business said.

Jones announced the agriculture-specific legislation during the Beef Farmers of Ontario annual general meeting gala in Toronto on Feb. 18, providing more detail on the bill’s goals.

Why it matters: There are areas where long-time farm legislation has gaps, such as some beef producers who don’t have to pay a check-off.

According to the minister, the legislation will include a “bundle of packages to modernize a whole bunch of different areas,” including the Beef Cattle Marketing Act, to align it with other jurisdictions.

“We will be introducing legislation to amend the Beef Cattle Marketing Act to modernize the check-off process,” Jones shared. “This is one tool in our arsenal that we can use to remain competitive and to keep family farms viable and successful.”

To ensure the bill is comprehensive, he told Farmtario the as-yet-unnamed legislation will impact supply-managed and non-supply-managed commodities and will be shaped by several roundtables and one-on-one consultations.

“We’ve got to refine it … (and) make sure we have enough room, enough debate time, the hours in the legislature to go through the proper motions,” Jones explained. “Those details are coming. But we want to be informed. We want to do it right.”

Modernizing check-off

The BFO has long lobbied to update the Beef Cattle Marketing Act, so any animal processed at a provincial abattoir has check-off applied, said outgoing president Craig McLaughlin.

Producers with cattle processed for freezer beef or on-farm sales do not pay check-off, unlike those in the sheep or swine sectors.

“This is about fairness in the system,” McLaughlin said. “If you do all your marketing through a livestock ring or sell to someone like Cargill, you pay full check-off. Some people, in my opinion, are not paying their fair share; this will bring fairness to the industry.”

Jones said the bill has support, noting Premier Doug Ford sees food security as vital to national security.

“Protecting our producers, giving them the potential to bring efficiencies over, make their operations more competitive globally and trade with partners around the world is a provincial priority,” Jones said.

The government knows some livestock supply chains cross borders, but it aims to reduce unnecessary movement by increasing processing capacity.

The objective is to boost Ontario’s trade competitiveness at home and globally.

“If we can re-shore some of that investment, process closer to farm, closer to producers and closer to market, it’s better,” he said. “There are pilots now underway for provincial abattoirs to get to that federal standard. The federal standard is the gold standard for international trade.”

Jones concluded by noting that collaboration is critical to ensure “we can modernize our systems alongside our members. Our work together reflects a shared understanding of what this sector needs to do to stay resilient.”

Updated to remove reference to a roundtable meeting that was unrelated to the aforementioned provincial agriculture bill.

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“This is about fairness and alignment,” said Trevor Welch, chair of the Canadian Beef Check-Off Agency in a June 24 news release.

The rule change applies to all interprovincial sales, including auction markets, dealers and direct farm-gate transactions,t he agency said.

The change also affects remittance chains, especially for auction marts, dealers and processors. These will have to adjust how they identify and apply check-off rates.

The agency said these changes will support compliance, consistency and transparency in the system. It will also ensure “the right amount of producer dollars stay in their home province, supporting provincial priorities.”

“Producers, provincial cattle associations and other stakeholders have been asking for a more consistent system that reflects their home province’s priorities, especially as interprovincial marketing and transport becomes more common,” Welch said.

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OSF says rising costs is a component in the decision. It says that it will be “committed to using the valuable license fees to support programs and services that help our farmers.”

Why it matters: Farm organizations are having to deal with increasing costs and many of them haven’t raised fees for years.

OSF Executive Director Erin Morgan said that the inflation of the past few years is partly responsible for an increase in costs.

“Thirteen years is a long time to go without raising your rates,” said Morgan. “The last few years of inflation, greater inflationary pressure, definitely played a role.”

OSF launched a five-year strategic plan in 2021 which aimed to create new programs and initiatives, many of which require funding. Morgan said that much of the money gained from the increased licensing fees will be going toward supporting them.

“A lot of that work requires an investment in market research, just investing in the data collected through the data chain, making sure that it works for everyone.”

“There’s a bunch of things that we’re working on,” she said, “we have a couple of new key research projects.”

She mentioned the recently announced living lab, in which OSF wanted to be include.

“Our participation in the program is included in the license fees,” she said.

“We’re also going to be working more closely with our processors and our auctions over the next little while to address some system upgrades needs that are required across the entire value chain.”

She said OSF also plans to invest in a new part-time staff member, to increase communications to grassroots.

She added that the strategic plan called for educational programming, something else which the fee increase will help fund.

“As of the strategic plan, we’ve created an educational component, it’s called the Sheep Institute. It’s a separate educational arm of the organization.”

Another educational endeavour is a course for producers interested in grazing for hire.

“Grazing solar fields, grazing hydro corridors, grazing other farmers’ land after crops, offering that as a service.”

OSF chair John Hemsted said in a release announcing the increase that the “new strategic plan prioritizes the relationship between the board, the districts and the members,” and that “the budget increase will increase our engagement with our members and improve our market knowledge to prepare for future initiatives to grow the sector for all producers.”

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SaskCanola and SaskFlax said Wednesday their new “management collaboration” will translate to efficiencies for both commissions with “a full staff complement to support both boards.”

Both organizations will now operate out of the current SaskCanola office at Innovation Place, a research and technology park next to the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon.

SaskCanola’s current executive director Tracy Broughton will manage both organizations as their new exec.

The two organizations emphasized they maintain their separate boards of directors and governance structures under the new collaboration, and canola and flax levies will still be collected separately.

“Finding administrative and operational efficiencies within our industry ensures that growers’ levy dollars are put to the best use,” SaskFlax board chair Greg Sundquist of Watrous said in a joint release.

“Our commissions were created with similar mandates and key focus areas — research, extension and market development. We are excited about the opportunities this arrangement brings to oilseed growers.”

“A lot of flax growers in our province are also going to have canola in their rotation, so it makes sense,” SaskCanola board chair Charlene Bradley of Stranraer added in the same release.

The new arrangement removes a question mark over the management of SaskFlax, which in late August put out a call with the Flax Council of Canada seeking a joint executive director for SaskFlax and president for the council, with a deadline of Oct. 21.

A SaskCanola representative said Thursday the Flax Council of Canada is not involved in the SaskCanola/SaskFlax arrangement.

SaskCanola, set up in 1991, is a farmer-led, levy-supported organization backing research, advocacy and market development work, while SaskFlax, operating since 1996, supports research and market development through checkoffs on flaxseed and flax straw. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The organization is acting on a recommendation to bring in expertise in auditing and compliance.

Geoff Holwell will join the producer organization on a part-time basis, with his primary responsibilities to ensure compliance with VFO’s regulations and maintain integrity of the licence fee collection system, the organization says.

Why it matters: There’s a mandatory $5.50 per animal checkoff fee for veal sold in Ontario, and as noted on the organization’s website, there remains a degree of confusion about when and by whom the fee should be paid.

VFO executive director Jennifer Haley says the initial focus will be on licence fee collection, and the bulk of the early work will focus on building relationships rather than cracking down on failure to remit. And even when the cracking down begins, the target audience will be dealers and buyers, rather than veal producers.

“It is possible that Geoff may reach out to some veal producers as part of the audit trail but to be clear, this position is not an on-farm inspector nor is there the capacity to do so,” she said.

In a news release, Haley says VFO has “worked openly and diligently on education and awareness” about the licence fee, “and as a result developed some great partnerships.” But she describes the recent decision as “the next phase of development as an organization and looking to ensure equitable compliance for all stakeholders.”

“The direct benefit for all veal producers is that VFO is ensuring that all producers and industry partners who are required to remit the regulated licence fees to VFO do so in an equitable and transparent manner,” Haley told Farmtario.

“Doing so ensures that VFO can continue to represent the collective needs of the producer – whether that is consumer marketing, research, advocacy or any other program impacting producers.”

The new position represents a reallocation of existing resources.

“Licence fee enforcement has always been part of our budget, staff resources and strategic plan,” Haley said.

In the past, those resources were directed towards an education and awareness role.

Asked if a specific incident or incidents led VFO staff to make the recommendation to the board of directors, she said no. Rather, it was guided by identification of a specific skill set needed for VFO to take the next steps on compliance and enforcement.

VFO is not alone in looking to one-time police officers for expertise. In 2006, Beef Farmers of Ontario hired 25-year OPP veteran Andy Millar as its checkoff inspector. Millar retired from BFO in 2019.

Haley listed the BFO inspector position as one that served as a model for the new VFO role. Along with his experience in the public sector, Holwell also worked as an insurance company claims investigator.

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The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) announced Monday it now has its designation under the provincial Agricultural Producers’ Organization Funding Act. The designation allows the new organization to collect mandatory-yet-refundable checkoffs on all sales of spring wheat, winter wheat, barley, sunflowers, corn and flax.

The amounts of the checkoffs are “unchanged to what was in place with the five amalgamating organizations” — the National Sunflower Association of Canada, Manitoba Corn Growers Association, Manitoba Flax Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association and Winter Cereals Manitoba.

MCA applied in February for the designation regulation from the Manitoba Farm Products Marketing Council, following votes by the five groups’ memberships during annual general and special meetings at the CropConnect Conference in Winnipeg.

Also effective Aug. 1, Manitoba Corn Growers Association and Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association general manager Pam de Rocquigny will be the MCA’s CEO, and National Sunflower Association of Canada and Winter Cereals Manitoba executive director Darcelle Graham becomes the new group’s chief operating officer.

MCA said its new checkoffs will be invested in three main areas, making up 86 per cent of MCA’s total budget: research and production; market access and development; and communication and advocacy.

“Each dollar spent in these areas is an investment from Manitoba farmers which helps to make wheat (spring and winter), barley, sunflower, corn, and flax profitable production choices for Manitoba farmers,” MCA said in a release.

Checkoff-funded initiatives “will also work to maintain and continuously improve the competitiveness of these crops both domestically and internationally.”

MCA also said Monday that its new website will go live Aug. 4. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Producers at the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) annual meeting in Mississauga on Wednesday voted 87 per cent in favour of the plan. A similar plan was rejected at last year’s annual meeting. As a constitutional change was needed, a two-thirds majority had to approve of the change.

Why it matters: The beef sector has been stagnant or declining in Ontario for years. It is hoped an increase in marketing, tied to the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program’s successful history, can change that.

Joe Hill, who was returned as chair of the BFO at the annual meeting, said the proposal was well thought-out and was the best hope of increasing value in the Ontario beef sector.

“Today is the day to fund it and bring it to life,” he said in making a plea for the approval of the increased checkoff.

Producers heard his request, but it was not a new story for them. After last year’s failure to fund what was called the Regional Marketing Initiative, BFO staff and directors provided extensive opportunity for beef farmer delegates to learn about the proposal during numerous meetings across the province.

That extra explanation seemed to work as the mood in the room at the annual general meeting of the organization was more positive towards the proposal than it was a year ago. That showed in the questions and statements of support before voting.

“We have to try it. I have to trust the people that the people who have been appointed will do their best,” said Stewart Cressman, a Waterloo County beef farmer.

The proposal was different this year with more details on how the program will be managed. A marketing committee has been formed of members of BFO and the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association, led by OCA executive director Jim Clark.

The OCA’s 20-year-old Corn Fed Beef Program now accounts for 30-40 per cent of all cattle processed in the province and has achieved market penetration into many major supermarket chains and also into targeted markets in Asia and the Middle East.

The goal is to use the branding experience of the CFBP to drive more demand and eventually grow the sector, especially the number of cow-calf operations in the province.

“Outcomes have to benefit our beef producers from top and bottom,” said Clark at the BFO meeting. “BFO and Cattle Feeders have to develop a process that works.”

Beef farmers in Ontario have challenges others in Canada do not, such as being the landing place of 85 per cent of imports from the U.S. and with ready large markets nearby. Cow numbers have declined over the past 10 years, with a stabilizing of numbers in the past three years.

— John Greig is editor of Farmtario at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him at @jgreig on Twitter.

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Out of 1,874 votes cast, 962 votes, or 51.3 per cent, fell in favour of a refundable service charge model, with 908 for a non-refundable model and four ballots spoiled, according to the preliminary figures from the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council, which conducted the vote.

Alberta Beef Producers (ABP), which collects a checkoff on cattle sales in the province, has been required to refund producers’ checkoff funds on request since 2009, when Ed Stelmach’s Tory government required any Alberta agricultural commission to refund checkoff dollars to a member upon his or her request.

The current NDP government last year blunted that legislation’s effect when it granted each of the province’s 13 ag commissions the ability to determine whether their respective checkoffs should be refundable or non-refundable.

“Our government felt it was important to empower producers to make this choice for themselves,” Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said in a statement Monday.

The AAPMC this fall held plebiscites for the Alberta Beef Producers and Potato Growers of Alberta on the refundability of their respective service charges. In the PGA plebiscite, 82 per cent of votes favoured of a non-refundable service charge model, Carlier noted.

The ABP plebiscite, which originally was to run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 13, was later extended to Nov. 27, as producers cited “challenging” weather conditions which led to delays in harvesting and other fall farm work.

ABP, in a release Monday, noted the results of the plebiscite can be contested by challenging the voting process to the returning officer before Dec. 11 — but the organization also said it “intends to abide by this decision of producers.”

“In a democracy, decisions are made by the people who participate and as we’ve said all along, (ABP) will honour the decision made by producers and the service charge will remain refundable,” ABP chair Charlie Christie said.

“While we wish the results were in favour of a non-refundable service charge and would have liked to see a higher voter turnout, (the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association) respects the decision of producers that voted,” ACFA chair Ryan Kasko said in the same release.

“We will continue to work hard to strengthen industry collaboration and create efficiencies regardless of the outcome.”

If Dec. 11 passes with no contests, the results of the vote will then be made official, the province said Monday.

Since 2009, ABP said, it has received “many” resolutions from producers at fall meetings and ABP delegates at general meetings pressing for a non-refundable service charge.

ABP and ACFA had reached an agreement earlier this year to support a checkoff plebiscite, on the condition that part of a non-refundable checkoff would go to create an industry development fund. A non-refundable checkoff had been expected to make $1.4 million available for such a fund.

As it is, producers will continue to pay service charges but retain the ability to request refunds. It’s recently been estimated that from what it collects each year in service charges on cattle sales, ABP refunds about a third, or $2 million, mainly to cattle feeders. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Having endured the defeat of its proposal for a mandatory goat milk check-off during a Producer Expression of Opinion vote last year, the nine-member board must now explore how to continue its work under a significantly decreased revenue regime.

Why it matters: Goat producers, without stable funding for an organization, won’t have as much representation in initiatives such as the new national code of practice on goat care and welfare.

“We have very minimal board expenses,” explained OG Executive Director Jennifer Haley, in delivering the organization’s 2017 financial report during OG’s annual meeting on March 21 in Woodstock. Haley described the board as “truly volunteer,” taking no per diem payments and charging no mileage or expenses for attending meetings.

But this frugality only goes so far when the failure to convince a majority of dairy goat producers to support the mandatory check-off means the organization must move from its former voluntary dairy check-off of half a cent per litre, to a still-being-implemented flat-rate, $300 voluntary membership fee.

The check-off proposal, taken to a vote by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission in February, 2017, did not include meat or fibre goat producers – who also have representation at Ontario Goat. Now the hope is that enough members from all three producer groups can be signed up to keep the organization afloat.

“If we can secure the amount (of membership sign-up) that we’re hoping for, we should have about 50 per cent of what we were getting with the voluntary (dairy) check-off,” explained chair of the OG board of directors, Norwich-area milk producer Anton Slingerland.

The financial repercussions are compounded by the fact that, without a check-off regime in place, the organization now has a decreased capacity to leverage government funding.

“There are a lot of opportunities, but there are also a lot of lost opportunities because we’re not able to harness resources, not able to harness financing,” Haley commented in her year-end executive director’s report.

The year 2017 had begun with a series of consultation sessions, Haley reminded those attending the meeting, seeking information about areas of focus prioritized by producers as the  organization approached government and/or secured stable funding through the Expression of Opinion vote. Those sessions highlighted a desire for the industry to speak with one voice.

“There’s kind of a dichotomy, I guess, from what everybody says in the report (from the consultation sessions) versus what people do when we actually get down to making that happen,” the executive director commented, making clear her frustration with the vote’s outcome.

What will be affected by the financial challenges? Haley didn’t shy away from saying how she thought producers and the organization might be affected.

An arrangement with Ontario Veal for shared office space and resources, in place now for nine years, could be on the line. “It’s quite a good deal for the goat industry, but it’s something that the board is going to have to examine going forward,” Haley warned.

OG also lost its potential, she suggested, to have influence around the table as a national Code of Practice for animal welfare is updated for goat production.

“My concern for you, as goat producers, is that it will be a processor-driven code.” Not only that, she added, but organizations like consumer groups and animal rights groups could get more of a say than farmers.

“They just finished the veal Code of Practice review, and we know the kind of investment and resources that takes,” Haley said. “It’s a significant amount of money, and it’s significantly more than what’s in (OG’s) budget over the next two-and-a-half to three years.”

Absent from Haley’s podium comments, compared to when an earlier Expression of Opinion vote was rejected by OG members back in 2012, were speculations about the organization’s demise. But speaking after her remarks,, the executive director admitted she once again fears for Ontario Goat’s future.

“The crystal ball is pretty hard to read right now,” she commented.

Slingerland, though, offered a degree of optimism in his address to AGM attendees. He commented that, as a result of a milk pricing collapse experienced in 2017, changes were made on many farms that will serve to strengthen those operations in the long term.

“I believe the industry is still viable and there’s still growth,” the OG board chair said. “It’s just at a slower rate.”

OG’s nine-member board of directors, including four new members elected from a slate of five nominees at the March 21 AGM, is expected to have its first meeting by the end of April.

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Why it matters: Beef Farmers of Ontario pulled from its reserves to fund at close-to $1 million deficit in 2017 and was planning to do the same in 2018 in anticipation of the $1.50 per head increase in checkoff being approved. The loss of the increased provincial checkoff will have national implications as Ontario has been slow to approve a new national agreement and increased checkoff.

“We’re simply not going to be able to draw down on our reserves as fast,” said Joe Hill, the newly elected president of Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO). “We’re going to have to realign our budget, going to have some hard decisions around what our priorities are for spending and what it ultimately means is we’re going to have to take money from some areas where we’re going to have less focus and put it into areas where we have more focus so we can come back with a closer to balanced budget so we can keep going for the next couple of years.”

BFO’s board wanted the increase in provincial checkoff funds in order to pay for an expanded role in marketing and communications in order to try to stem the constriction of the Ontario beef industry and replace some of the $530 million in yearly beef imports from the U.S. that come into the province.

A provincial checkoff increase beyond the current $3 per head required a constitutional change for BFO, which meant provincial consultations and a two-thirds approval from farmers delegates at an annual meeting.

When it came to a vote of its delegates to the BFO annual meeting recently in Mississauga, the result was 61 per cent in favor, short of the 66 per cent support required for the constitutional change.

Most of the new money would have gone to the BFO’s Regional Marketing Initiative which invests in branded Ontario beef marketing initiatives. In the past year there were nine projects approved worth $390,000, with $148,000 invested by BFO, including projects such as:

• Flanagan Food Service developed a premium Ontario Beef private label brand called Carve.
• Norwich Packers created a grass-fed beef program.
• Ryding Regency developed a program for beef from cattle that hadn’t been treated with hormones.

“When you have a stake in the game you have the ability to have a say in how things are done,” said John Baker, the program manager for the Regional Marketing Initiative.

National beef politics also in play

Ontario has been slow to approve a new national agreement with the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off Agency that’s been approved by the rest of the provinces in the country. There is also a debate over an increase to the national checkoff which would also mean an increase to $2.50 per head checkoff versus the current $1.

Beef farmers at the BFO annual meeting voted to continue discussion of the increase in national checkoff. It would require a vote at next year’s annual meeting.

An import levy equivalent to the per-head checkoff also applies to beef imported into the country, and as a result, national funds that come back to the province can only be used for generic promotion of beef versus branded products or import replacement – the aim of the Ontario Regional Marketing Initiative.

When it comes to signing the national agreement on collection of the levy, Hill says the BFO board isn’t yet convinced there’s enough value for beef farmers in Ontario from an increase in the national agreement, although he says the wording of the agreement is mostly finalized.

“The national industry tends to be fairly western-oriented,” says Hill. “Arguably 80 per cent of the beef is from Western Canada, so it’s to be expected, but for the Ontario industry to really survive we’ve got to find some value adding in there, which we aren’t seeing from our national organization yet.”

It all comes down to the market. A large volume of Western Canadian beef is exported, whereas there are significant urban markets in Ontario currently underserved by Canadian beef. Eighty-five per cent of beef imports from the U.S. come into Ontario totalling more than $530 million each year, says Jim Clark, executive director of the Ontario Corn Fed Beef Program.

Beef farmers passed a resolution at the annual meeting that encourages the board of directors to get the national agreement finalized.

“We’ve been working at this for the last number of years,” said Larry Jinkerson, who moved the motion to approve the resolution. “It’s time to get on with it and get it signed. We’re the only province not on board.”

— John Greig is a field editor for Glacier FarmMedia based at Ailsa Craig, Ont. Follow him on Twitter at @jgreig.

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