Everything is still so up in the air that it’s hard to tell how the cards are going to play out with the current political crisis gripping Canada. If the government does change, what impact could that have on agriculture?
The tobacco industry could be one victim of the turmoil.
A report in the Brantford Expositor today suggests that the $300 million buyout of the tobacco industry announced by the Conservatives earlier this year may not survive the government transition. Ontario’s tobacco farmers had lobbied long and hard for a package that would help farmers exit the beleaguered industry.
Last August, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced the feds would provide financial support to retire 271 million pounds of tobacco quota under a program that would affect approximately 1,500 individuals and farm families in Norfolk, Brant, Elgin, Oxford and Middlesex counties.
That would be a bitter blow to many tobacco farmers who have struggled with low prices and shrinking markets in recent years and who were counting on government support to help them exit the industry.
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