The most significant point now about Bill 81 is what
has not been said. How much will it cost?
The publicly funded George Morris Center has recently
studied the issue and come up with a figure that it passed on to Ontario
Minister of Agriculture Helen Johns. She, in turn, has asked farmers for
their input on the proposed regulations but won’t tell them how much it
will cost. At the same time, the province is about to implement the rules
of a law that will have more affects on farming than any before.
Johns, before Christmas, told a meeting of farmers in
Brockville that she is keeping the expected costs to herself because it
could change significantly as the proposed regulations change.
What’s happening here? The province wants input on a
bill that might change but won’t reveal the expected costs because that
also might change? No. Johns has withheld the costs because she wants to
leave public meetings with all her limbs intact, as one farmer told us.
Withholding costs was a decision to save her own skin because the
implementation of the bill could cost $1.8 billion or more — about
$20,000 to $30,000 on average for the 60,000 farmers in Ontario.
What’s more, agricultural lawyer Donald Good expects
the cost of litigation and fines to be substantial. He suspects that the
environmental police will be looking to prosecute and make money.
We don’t figure, with the cost of everything rising faster than
commodity prices, the farm economy can take another hit. If the Ontario
government cares about farmers and their input on Bill 81 then the
government is morally obliged to share the costs in more ways than one.
