Ontario Tobacco Farmers Looking for $1-Billion Bailout From Ottawa

Source from:  Chinta Puxley, Canadian Press Thursday, August 31, 2006  09/01/2006

Dwayne Vanbesien has grown up with tobacco all his life. The 50 acres of green, leafy plant helped build his childhood farmhouse in southwestern Ontario, put food on his table, gas in his car and gave him a farming career. But the tobacco farmer would be perfectly happy never to see another tobacco leaf again. Vanbesien, like many of his neighbours in this rural corner north of Lake Erie, says he's a casualty of the war on cigarettes. And he wants out. "Unless you're living in this hell, you have got no idea what's going on," Vanbesien said, shaking his head. "No idea. We can't go on year after year, after year trying to pay the mortgage. Just give me an exit plan." Farmers like Vanbesien are calling on the federal government, along with tobacco companies, to give them a $1-billion bailout so they can abandon the crop once and for all. They say the government's crackdown on tobacco - increasing tobacco taxes and banning smoking in all public buildings - has helped drive tobacco companies out of Canada. Last fall, Imperial Tobacco announced the closure of its two Ontario plants in Guelph and Aylmer, delivering a fatal blow to local farmers. Now cigarettes are increasingly being filled with tobacco from countries like Brazil - where production costs are lower - leaving Canadian farmers with an ever-shrinking market. The number of tobacco farmers is shrinking too. Where there were more than 4,500 Canadian tobacco farmers in the 1960s, now there are around 600. "My farm's been in my family for 200 years," said Mark Bannister, a 48-year-old tobacco farmer from Vanessa, Ont. "It's coming to an end. Tobacco is leaving. We are on the Titanic. We know that. We need a life preserver or we're going to drown." Bannister and fellow tobacco farmer Brian Edwards founded Tobacco Farmers in Crisis a couple of years ago to push the federal government for help. At one time, they hoped to make it possible for people to keep farming tobacco. Like so many here, they've long given up on that. Now they want the cash to pay off their debts - which average around $400,000 per farm - and start a new career. Edwards said it could be easily done, if the federal government put a levy on tobacco products earmarked to help farmers retrain and retire. "There is no escape here in tobacco," said Edwards, who sold his farm in 2004. "We're at the end. The industry is making $12 billion in profit and we can't manage our bills." Hank Chromczak, a 58-year-old farmer from Aylmer, said farmers have little choice but to ask the government for help. No one will buy a tobacco farm, knowing it is a dying industry. Farmers who spent millions on modern farm equipment several years ago to remain competitive can't give it away, he said. Chromczak tried to sell his new combine last year, even listing it in the U.S., and didn't get one offer. "We all worked too hard and too long to watch this crumble around us," he said. "This is the end of a lifetime." Many of these tobacco farms were built from the soil up by immigrants who sold the farm to their children, which in turn provided their pension. The system that worked for decades, today, puts added pressure on remaining tobacco farmers. Vanbesien said he would love to walk away from his farm but his dad is relying on his mortgage payments. "If I can't pay my dad, what's he going to do?" Vanbesien said. Today's tobacco farmer is doing everything to deter the next generation from building a future on the farm. Even building a future in the community seems like a stretch. Downtown Delhi, once a thriving Ontario town fuelled by tobacco money, is a collection of boarded-up storefronts and "closed" signs. Gone is the Ford dealership, the Chrysler dealership, the foundry. Even the Dollarama has closed its doors for good. Ed and Sandy Dehooghe, tobacco farmers for 20 years, say that's what they find most heartbreaking - that their son and daughter don't even have the choice to stay close to home. "We are driving our kids away because we don't see any opportunity for them here," said Ed. "It's a trial." Many, like the Dehooghes, have tried growing other crops - asparagus, cucumbers, corn, strawberries, potatoes. But they've had little success replacing tobacco. Most of the markets are already saturated and, by planting vegetables, many tobacco farmers are cutting into the slim profit margins of their neighbours. "It pits farmer against farmer," Edwards said. "People are in financial distress. It's time things were done fairly. But all we're getting are excuses." Much of the heat is now being put on Diane Finlay, minister of human resources and an MP whose constituency includes the province's tobacco country. The federal government is considering a few proposals, Finlay said, including the idea of a $1-billion bailout proposed by the farmers. Ottawa understands the "need is pressing," Finlay said. But she said she doesn't know when the government will decide on a solution. "Summer being summer, there are so many people on vacation that it slows the process down," she said. "We've just got to deal with it on a day-to-day basis." She said she's working with officials in Agriculture Canada and hopes to be able to offer some relief to farmers, which may not have to be in the form of a cheque. Tobacco plants may be used for the nutraceutical industry, she said. "While we have the growing skills, it would be a shame not to use them," she said. Officials from Agriculture Canada and Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl's office did not respond to a request for comment. Either way, many farmers say they just want to know what the future holds. Linda Mels, who took over her parents' farm 16 years ago, said her young daughter wonders aloud whether she will be able to live on the farm someday so she can work there on weekends. Mels doesn't know what to tell her. She jokes with her son that they may attend university together. Everyone is in a holding pattern, she said, waiting to hear from the government. "I'd like to see what's in the works and when it's coming so we can have some certainty, some stability," she said. "Something has to be done and done quickly." But farmers like Dwayne Vanbesien are running out of faith. Vanbesien dreams about having one week - with the kids, at a rented cottage. Still, he often thinks he would be better off as a farmer in a Third World country whose crops are devastated by a natural disaster like a tsunami. "Then I would get some money from Canada. Enditem