Help!; Chairman Says Tobacco Growers Desperate for Gov't Assistance

Source from:  By Patrick Brennan, TIMES-JOURNAL STAFF 07/14/2008

The 2008 annual general meeting for the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board may go down in history as the one where good news was hard to find. Tobacco growers at the AGM held at the Saxonia Hall suffered in silence Thursday as a list of issues covering everything from more and more pages of red ink on the board's books to frustration in trying to negotiate an exit strategy dominated. Board Chairman Linda Vandendriessche said it best as she addressed the near capacity crowd of more than 250 growers. "We need tangible help and we need it now," she told her audience. "With each day that passes we go deeper in debt and despair," she said. "Talk is cheap, but it does not put food on our table or satisfy our creditors." Vandendriessche said growers find some solace in the fact that the federal Liberal party along with the New Democrats voted in favour of immediate financial relief for them, but so far, neither the Ontario or federal government has committed to a plan. She hinted the growers need more allies, namely "the trade", or cigarette manufacturers. "The trade is a key stakeholder in our industry and they have benefitted handsomely over the years and now we believe they must step up to the plate to be part of the solution. "We cannot accept no for an answer. We, along with your help and support must keep up the right to reach our goal." Vandendriessche addressed the concern growers have about contraband cigarettes being smuggled into Canada and sold at a bargain without taxes collected. "Approximately 40 per cent of the cigarettes consumed in Ontario are illegal -- cigarettes that do no contain our Ontario grown leaf. In an effort to compete with the illegal, low-priced product, the trade has dramatically increased its import of cheaper leaf." Enditem