RUNCIMAN SPEAKS OUT ON FARMER’S MARKETS

CRACKDOWN ON FARMERS' MARKETS

PETER SHURMAN, ANNOUNCER: So while we're on the subject of eating isn't shopping at a farmer's market one of those treats for us city folk, who are stopping by to pick up jams and preserves or a blueberry pie from a summer roadside stand? And would you attend one of those church suppers, fundraisers where you meet and you eat and you chat? All great summertime activities, but there's Ontario concerned about cleanliness and looking to regulate them. Bob Runciman has been MPP for Leeds-Grenville, a largely rural riding for the last 25 years. Bob is a church supper really going to kill me?

BOB RUNCIMAN, CONSERVATIVE MPP: Well it hasn't so far in our history. I know one of the reporters asked Sheela Basrur, who is the Medical Officer of Health, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for an example in the past 20 years and she couldn't cite one example of a problem, you know, in a church supper or in a farmer's market. So they're really going after a problem that isn't there.

SHURMAN: Well I'm just wondering about this. Seriously the farmers' markets are a way of life in Ontario, they really are, many people use them, even here in Toronto. I'm sure you, yourself, have gone down to the St. Lawrence Market North on a Saturday morning when it's teaming with people. What is wrong with that?

RUNCIMAN: Well that's a darn good question. I think it's sort of this big brotherism approach and if you give the bureaucrats free head they're going to utilize it, and I think that this government seems to be sympathetic to that. We saw that with a sushi ban they were going to ban fresh sushi but there was such an out roar in Toronto they backed away from that.

SHURMAN: Yeah.

RUNCIMAN: Now rural Ontario - I don't think this government - I think they've written off most of the rural Ontario seats for the next election, so they don't seem to be as receptive to the concerns as they were in the sushi ban.

SHURMAN: Well it does sound terribly political which is why I wanted to talk about it today, and perhaps I'm missing some real health issue because if there are real health issues we'd want to know about them. But I can remember this coming up previously and it really pertains to what we buy, the quality of the food in these places or any places, and I don't know that you can apply the same kinds of stringencies to farmers' markets, roadside stands, church suppers and all the rest of it, that you would for example to restaurants or chain food stores.

RUNCIMAN: No I don't think you can either and I don't think you have to. You know I think most of the problems that we've had if you look back even last year with the problem getting ill at some product that was being sold in grocery stores, a vegetable product I believe it was. And you know people were ill from that. That was a regulated operation and a wholesaler. We saw with a catering outfit in the Hamilton area last year where a hundred and some people had food poisoning. Again, this is an regulated operation. We don't have those same kinds of complaints you know for church suppers and potluck dinners in the local church basement or for farmers' markets. So -

SHURMAN: I've never heard of any complaints. You come from a fairly rural riding and there are church suppers in your area, particularly in many areas of rural Ontario. There are roadside stands in the summertime. Are these people feeling threatened?

RUNCIMAN: Oh, very much so. I know we were talking to a lady who's the president of the Women's Institute in my riding, they've always had once a month a potluck dinner. And this is a revenue generator for this group, which has been in business for over 100 years. And you know each of the ladies brings in a different dish. And according to the Medical Officer of Health they're going to crackdown on this sort of thing, they won't be able to do it. So really that effectively not only means the death of those church dinners, potluck dinners but effectively there's also women's institutes, many such other organizations across the province which have been in, you know, operations in serving their communities in many ways for generations, and they're really attacking that kind of person. I think, you know, Peter in my view it's a Toronto-centric mentality, people who are in charge of making these decisions, you know, wouldn't know a church supper from Chuckie Cheese. I mean they have never appreciated that, don't understand it, don't recognize the history and the traditions attached to these sorts of operations and so they're trying to apply this sort of downtown Toronto mentality to the rest of Ontario.

SHURMAN: I fear you're right. You know the stats say a million Ontarians spend about $645 million at farmers' markets annually. So my conclusion is we must like them and that's a hell of a lot of repeat business.

RUNCIMAN: It is and the other element of this is the tourism aspect. I live in a border community and I see, you know, during the summer they operate the market in Brockville two or three days a week and you see Americans coming in by boat. These are magnets for tourists and not just along the border but in other areas as well. And the real economic impact is about $2 billion in terms of spin-off of these operations.

SHURMAN: We'll be watching you do and certainly what George Smitherman does. Bob Runciman, MPP for Leeds-Grenville thank you for joining us today.

RUNCIMAN: Thank you, Peter.