(OTTAWA, ON) Good to meet with members of the Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) in Ottawa, including Vice-President Jason Leblond who along with his wife Jenny operates a cow-calf beef farm in Chisholm. Jason is also a Director with the Canadian Cattle Association. Present at the meeting along with MP Rochefort was Timiskaming Constituency Manager Amanda St. Jean.
MP Rochefort will be supporting the beef farming operations in Nipissing-Timiskaming as they seek to:
- Defend Canada’s trading relationship with the United States and vigorously oppose any U.S. tariffs on Canadian agri-food products, specifically cattle, beef and beef products.
- Seek a permanent increase in the interest-free limit under the Advance Payments Program (APP) of at least $250K.
- Harmonize Canadian SRM Removal Requirements with the U.S.
- Advocate for increased investment in Meat Processing Capacity focused on increasing access to infrastructure grants, access to labour and skills training, and market development support.
BACKGROUNDER:
- The Ontario beef sector contributes $2.69 billion to Ontario's GDP on an annual basis from primary production, processing and retail.
- It sustains more than 61,000 jobs. Ontario beef farmers sell to 58 markets around the world.
- There are currently 223,000 beef cows on Ontario farms, averaging 24 cows per farm.
- Approximately 19,000individual beef farmers are actively raising cattle in Ontario and have paid the required license fees.
- Among the beef farms in the Nipissing-Timiskaming Riding are (Temiskaming) Season Ranch, Hillside Farms and Bowmanlea Farms as well as (Nipissing) Blue Seal Farm, Wand Family Farm, N7 Cattle Company and Rutherglen Cattle Company.
Photo above (from left) Amanda St. Jean, Constituency Manager (Timiskaming); Jason Leblond, Vice President BFO; MP Rochefort; Don Hargrave, Cow-Calf Director BFO; and Evan Chaffe, Senior Policy Advisor BFO.