OFA president talks about 3 big challenges farmers face

Statistics Canada’s website states that “Ontario is a pivotal contributor to Canadian agriculture,” and according to the 2021 census of agriculture, “accounted for over one-quarter (25.5%) of total farms in Canada, while making up 7.7% of total farm area.”

Despite how important farmers and agriculture is on various fronts, it’s an industry facing challenges. 

The Press spoke with Drew Spoelstra, President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), to learn more. 

“There’s no shortage of issues, that’s for sure,” he said. 

“Probably the first one still is around land use and a lot of the challenges with losing farmland to other uses, whether that’s housing, the hydro corridor, infrastructure, roads, commercial development, those types of things,” Spoelstra said. 

OTTAWA—OFA President Drew Spoelstra (centre) was one of many attendees at the 2024 Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO)’s annual conference in August. He caught up with two Haldimand politicians this year, speaking with Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley (left) and MPP Bobbi Ann Brady. —Photo courtesy of MPP Bobbi Ann Brady’s Facebook.

One of the ongoing concerns of the OFA and its membership is “how municipalities handle official plans and urban boundary expansions, and how the province looks at protecting farmland going forward. (We) seem to be fighting a lot of battles about farmland.” 

Spoelstra said there are plenty of examples across the province of “prime agricultural land” being considered for other types of uses; he specifically cited efforts for a large development in the Wilmont area, and in Nanticoke around the industrial park. 

“There’s (also) lots of land being impacted around Caledonia and around some of the urbanized areas of Haldimand,” he added.

His says it’s not about being anti-development, but rather pro-farmland. 

If land is suitable for farming, “we want to make sure that as much of that remains in agriculture as we possibly can,” Spoelstra said, adding that agriculture is “a perpetual annual economic driver” that supports the provincial economy, economic development in the particular region the farmer is working in, and the local community.  

Despite the economic benefits farming can bring in general, another challenge farmers are facing is the cost of doing business. 

“Taxation and overall costs of farm operations is one that members are continually highlighting (as one) that needs to be addressed, whether that’s property tax, whether that’s carbon tax, overall cost of production,” Spoelstra said. Part of the problem is when farms are paying taxes without seeing substantial benefits. 

“We’ve done a lot of studies around the province on cost of community services and most farms around the province, for every dollar they contribute, they receive around 50 cents’ worth of services. So in a lot of ways, they’re subsidizing residential development and commercial development in their areas.” 

Spoelstra said more focus is needed on processing Ontario’s primary agriculture products into food and other items. 

“We need to invest in processing in the meat sector, the dairy sector, and the grain sector. There’s so much opportunity to continue to invest in those things and add value to the primary products that we have here, instead of sending it elsewhere in the world,” he said. 

The third main issue farmers across Ontario are facing is one that is pervasive for other industries in the province as well: a shortage of workers. 

“There’s a lot of jobs going unfilled on farms and farm businesses across the province,” Spoelstra said, adding that “there continues to be four or five jobs for every graduate” who comes out of an agriculturally focused post-secondary program. 

Some of the jobs are highly skilled. 

“Agriculture is high tech,” Spoelstra said. “It takes time to train … and get people up to speed on new technologies in the industry and how to move things forward.” 

The labour shortage pressures are also there with jobs that have long been ubiquitous to the industry. 

A 2021 post on the College of Veterinarians of Ontario’s website noted that “the demand for veterinarians, as indicated in job postings, reached a new record high each of the past four years, and continues to rise”; in the same post, the organization said, “workforce shortages are not uncommon in the rural and remote areas of Ontario.”  

Most aspiring veterinarians focus on treating domestic animals, such as cats and dogs; treating large animals like cows and horses is a specialized field. On top of that, while the services of large animal veterinarians are desperately needed, the patient base – being mostly rural and remote – is spread wide. 

“It’s hard to set up shop and be able to service everyone,” Spoelstra said. “I think there’s a work-life balance piece to that as well; sometimes large animal work is 24/7, on-call all the time, whereas smaller animals are typically 9 to 5.” 

The OFA has been trying to improve the situation: “We’ve been doing some work with the Ontario government to modernize some of the regulations around veterinarians; also, to improve the numbers that they’re graduating in terms of veterinarians, specifically large animal veterinarians,” Spoelstra said.

Another area farmers are having a hard time finding workers is with “the day-to-day stuff as well, the more labour-intensive jobs.” 

Many times, temporary foreign workers are the ones being hired to do these jobs. 

“We rely on (them) coming into the country,” Spoelstra said.

He added that while there’s been some bad press lately with other industries’ treatment of temporary foreign workers, since they’ve been part of the agriculture industry for so long, there are strict regulations already in place in that sector.  

“We’ve worked with temporary foreign workers for a long time and do a really good job of making sure that they’re treated well, comfortable, have all the amenities that are needed, and are able to support their families back home,” he said. 

Furthermore, while temporary foreign workers are often the ones filling the more labour-intensive jobs on the farms, “there’s opportunities for Canadians and other folks to fill those jobs as well.”

Ultimately, the labour shortage in agriculture is “right across the board,” Spoelstra said, and more work needs to be done to showcase the industry “and get more people interested in those jobs.”

While these challenges may feel insurmountable some days, there is work being done to strengthen the industry. 

For instance, Spoelstra said, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) launched the Grow Ontario strategy “to increase production, increase exports, and increase local processing capacity.” 

The OFA has been working on its Home Grown campaign, which has been looking into how to support local businesses, on-farm markets, and farmers’ markets. Part of this has included partnering with Farmers’ Markets Ontario, and helping to spread the word to consumers as to where they can get locally grown and produced products, which fruits and vegetables are in season, etc. 

During the Covid pandemic, there was a greater emphasis on eating locally and shopping locally, and that seems to have continued, Spoelstra said. 

“People want to do more business locally and want to support their own folks in their own community. Shopping at on-farm markets and farmers’ markets in general is a good way to do that. Hopefully, we can continue to promote that going forward,” he said. 

“I think a lot of people realize that local food is important to not only the local economy, but it’s important for their health; it’s important to support agriculture businesses in their neighbourhoods.”