Tobacco Auction Over

Source from:  By Jeff Helsdon STAFF WRITER Friday March 07, 2008 03/09/2008

Barrett motion for flue exit funding defeated The 2007-2008 tobacco-selling season came to an end Thursday without much fanfare. There weren't too many happy faces in the Delhi tobacco auction exchange that day with prices averaging less than $1.40 a pound for most of this week. Beyond the immediate market conditions, the unknown future of the industry is likely weighing heavily on most producers' minds. There is a distinct possibility that Thursday was the last ever day of flue sales in the Delhi facility. Although the manufacturers want about 20 million pounds of Ontario leaf – which would be the smallest crop ever grown and 50 per cent less than last season's crop – they have made it clear they didn't want to buy through the auction system. Moving away from an auction system is part and parcel of an exit package that would phase out quota, something still not forthcoming from government. Producers at the warehouse this week didn't want to talk on the record about their situation. "It's a ticking time bomb," one producer, who didn't want his name in print, remarked. Doug Rupert, a farm worker, who was in the warehouse for the day, said farmers were being "raped" by the tobacco companies. He pointed to a tag showing tobacco sold for just over $1.30, saying it cost $1.30 to produce it. Tobacco farmers were promised a stable crop size when they invested thousands of dollars to meet government-mandated updates to their kilns only five years ago. "Now they yanked the rug out from underneath them," Rupert said. He said the government has collected billions in tax dollars from tobacco products and should ante up. There has been a push to move to alternate crops, but Rupert said money is needed to make a transition. "These fellows are willing to say we'll pack it in if you compensate us at least partially," he said. "Then the government turns their backs on them." Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett's efforts to convince the province to come up with its share of any possible tobacco aid package was voted down by Liberal MPPs. Traditionally Canadian agriculture programs are funded on a 60-40 basis, with the federal government paying the largest share and the province picking up the remainder. Barrett presented a motion at the finance committee's pre-budget session calling on the province to contribute its 40 percent share to a possible package. His motion was defeated "We need a comprehensive plan to continue with what both the provincial and federal government did in 2005, given that both levels of government are dedicated to eradicating all tobacco production," he said. "Tobacco farmers have to move on." Barrett presented the motion following a pre-budget session in London where the tobacco board made a presentation asking for funding. "Farmers have never been in a more precarious position," he said. "It is this very government who has instituted a war on tobacco and some of the most stringent tobacco control legislation in the world. It baffles me that they can turn their back on these folks who have been driven out of business by hypocritical government policy." Enditem