Hansard Issue L156

Session: 38:1

Date: June 8, 2005

http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/38-1/l156.htm

[Re: John Tory’s motion: to "support and endorse the historical and traditional values of Ontario's rural communities and commit to ensuring that government legislation, regulation and enforcement do not undermine these traditions and values."]

John Tory: ... “I was at the Perth spring festival -- it's a maple syrup festival; I've forgotten the exact name for it -- with the member for Lanark-Carleton. We had a very nice time. We were going along all the different booths that were there; there was a farmers' market there. We stopped at one booth, and the woman said to us, "Look, could you help me with something?" She said, "They're now telling me there are inspectors. They're going to come to my farm kitchen and tell me whether it's OK to be making jams and jellies," and all this sort of thing that's been going on for generations in this province.

That is part of what makes Ontario tick, that you have people with a real sense of community. They sknow who they're buying this stuff from. They know where it's made. It was probably made by the same person's grandmother, in the same kitchen -- probably updated but the same physical structure -- two generations ago. This government has no time to provide any meaningful help for farmers, no time to develop a meaningful approach, all kinds of time to develop a new so-called municipal partnership program that gouges the property taxpayers of a lot of small towns across this province. But they do have time for their idea of a food sovereignty strategy, to ban fresh sushi and to really crack down on those farm kitchens across Ontario where all these people -- like none -- are getting into trouble because they're buying jams and jellies from people who have probably been making those things in their kitchens for two or three generations.”

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock):
... “The litany of decisions made by this Liberal government have hurt the farmers: municipal outlet drainage program removed, funding to genetic research programs removed, they've dragged their feet on providing BSE funding to farmers; increased taxes; hydro rates are going up, increased red tape. They've even sent the jam police out to the farmers' markets.

Date: May 4, 2006

http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/38-2/l071.htm ''' Mr. Robert W. Runciman (Leeds-Grenville):'''
Farmers' markets: This Liberal government is going to impose significant impediments on the operations of farmers' markets, requiring them to have public washrooms. That's one of the regulations coming down. The government, through this fund, could ensure that those farmers' markets continue to operate and attract people by paying for this. If you're going to impose these kinds of restrictions and regulations, the government should be prepared to come forward with the monies to accomplish that.

FARMERS' MARKETS

Mr. Robert W. Runciman (Leeds-Grenville):
Rural Ontarians have once again found themselves in the crosshairs of the McGuinty government. It disappoints me to have to rise in this House today to provide yet another example of this Liberal government's encroachment upon rural values.

In March of this year, the Ministry of Health secretly distributed a draft report entitled Ontario Farmers' Markets Food Safety Guidelines with the intention of drastically altering the regulations governing Ontario's farmers' markets. This report was compiled without input from municipalities, market managers or the individual vendors who make our farmers' markets the unique fixture Ontarians have enjoyed for generations.

One is left to ask, how many other provincial matters are being discussed behind closed doors without input from those most affected? In fact, the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit board has determined that due to the potential negative impacts on the region, they object to the ministry's hasty timelines to ram these new and secretly drafted guidelines through. They have called upon the minister to accept a three-month extension on changes to the current guidelines so that proper consultations and stakeholder input can take place.

I encourage the Minister of Health to listen to this plea and recognize the importance of farmers' markets to the cultural and generational roots of rural and small-town Ontario.

Date: May 16, 2006

http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/38-2/l077b.htm

Mr. Runciman:
They don't understand the traditions of church dinners. They don't understand the traditions of farmers' markets. That's why they want to go in and control them. They want them to have logbooks. They want them to have food handler certificates.

A reporter asked the provincial medical officer of health today, "What are you doing this for? Have you had any complaints over the last 20 years?" She said, "We have not had one complaint in 20 years." Not one complaint. Where do we have the problems? They're in the regulated sector. In Toronto -- Mr. Duguid would know this -- we had a serious problem last year in one of the restaurants. We found out it was some product coming in from Asia which was causing the food problems. In Hamilton last year we had 130 or so people sick at a catered banquet, a licensed caterer. That's the kind of problems we're having. We're not having problems at church dinners. You're telling people who for generations -- they're mothers, they're grandmothers, they're great grandmothers -- used to make a pie, used to make a salad and take to it a potluck dinner to raise some money for the church or to have a church meeting, that they can't do that anymore.

Mr. Runciman: Mr. Speaker, I'll calm down. It's the interjections from people who shouldn't be interjecting which get me upset, because these are people who are supposed to be standing up for rural Ontario. Maybe they do. But I would think that in situations like this, where the Minister of Health is out in the hallway today in a scrum -- here's a guy who represents downtown Toronto, doesn't have a clue, wouldn't know a church dinner from Chuck E. Cheese. That's the reality, and here he is saying, "We can go into and impose these kinds of regulations on farmers' markets. We can go in and impose these kinds of regulations and enforcement, sending out these inspectors."

The Philipsville Women's Institute called me a couple of months ago because the Lanark-Leeds-Grenville health unit was threatening to shut them down. They have had these potluck dinners for the Women's Institute for probably 100 years. It's a main source of income for the Women's Institute. They have never had a problem. They have never had a complaint. But now the health unit is out there telling them, "You've got to have food handler certificates. You can't bring in potluck. You've got to have a licensed and authorized kitchen, and you've got to spend $50,000 to install that kind of kitchen. You've got to keep logbooks of temperatures" when you're doing this, that and the other thing. There is a whole list of these things that are simply insane.

This is the minister, of course, who wanted to ban raw sushi. Of course, there was such an uproar, but where did that uproar come from? It came from, essentially, urban Toronto, Ontario, and when he got that uproar, he backed away. Now that he and his Toronto-centric friends are going into rural Ontario, they don't care about an uproar, an outcry in rural Ontario, because they've written it off.

I'll tell you, he backs off on sushi because of the outcry in Toronto, but all of rural Ontario -- and we're going to hear more and more of this. The Minister of Health stands up and says, "Oh, nothing's changed." The minister here says, "Oh, nothing's changed, we've got the same rules." Well, I've seen this 48-page report and the things they want to do. It's a very significant and dramatic change. Maybe the Minister of Rural Affairs hasn't looked at this 48-page report. We couldn't get it out of the government. They wouldn't give it to us. We had to get it through other channels.

Similar discussion to above on May 18, 2006