Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker says he is thrilled the government is taking action to cut red tape and reduce regulatory burden for beef farmers and all Ontario businesses.
Walker congratulated Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ernie Hardeman, on a recent announcement to help make sure the province’s agricultural sector is open for business, better able to create and protect jobs and to grow the economy, through improvements to the Feeder Cattle Loan Guarantee Program.
“Hard working farming families deserve our support and I’m pleased to see Minister Hardeman is taking action to reduce red tape that adds to their operating costs and hurts their competitiveness,” said Walker.
“Our government wants to help farmers focus on growing their businesses,” said Minister Hardeman. “One way that we’re doing this is by introducing changes to the Feeder Cattle Loan Guarantee Program that will reduce red tape and overall costs for co-ops, resulting in a better program for our farmers.”
The changes would reduce unnecessary and costly credit checks in the program, which will save co-ops time and money. The revisions would also streamline the transfer of ownership of livestock once a loan is paid off. They are the result of listening closely to beef farmers, hearing their concerns and acting on their ideas to fix long-standing issues with the program.
These new changes add to the more than 30 red tape and regulatory reductions recently announced by the government to reduce the burden on job creators while protecting our environment and maintaining rules that keep Ontarians safe and healthy.
These changes are part of the government’s multi-year Ontario Open for Business Action Plan, which is tackling the red tape that’s driving jobs and investment out of the province. The plan includes a target to reduce regulatory red tape affecting businesses by 25 per cent.
“We want to hear from farmers and others in the agri-food value chain with suggestions about how the government can make changes to eliminate burdensome requirements for agri-food and rural stakeholders,” said Walker.
The full list of proposed changes can be viewed on the Province of Ontario’s website at:https://news.ontario.ca/medg/en/2018/12/proposed-changes-to-create-jobs-and-reduce-regulatory-burden-in-specific-sectors.html
