STATEMENT TO THE LEGISLATURE
BY ROBERT W. RUNCIMAN, MPP
Mr. Speaker,
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 government’s encroachment upon rural values.
In March of this year, the Ministry of Health secretly distributed a draft report entitled the “Ontario Farmer’s 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 that rural 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 through these new and secretly drafted guidelines.
They have called upon the Minister to accept a 3 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 Ontarians.
