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Nonetheless, we need to continue to explore this issue — and not just because of the implications for mobile phones or iPads. This is also a very important issue for farmers.

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TVO’s John Michael McGrath put it rather well when he wrote: “A modern tractor is as much a computer on wheels as any car … A farmer with a broken tractor at harvest time faces a basic threat to their livelihood.”

Farmers know how to fix things, but warranties and licenses are forcing farmers to rely on the manufacturer, at added expense and time delays. That’s unfair and unhelpful.

As a Wired article aptly put it: “The ability to maintain their own equipment is a big deal to farmers. When it’s harvest time and the combine goes kaput, they can’t wait several days for John Deere to send out a repair technician. Plus, farmers are a pretty handy bunch. They’ve been fixing their own equipment forever. Why spend thousands of dollars on an easy fix?”

Our farmers deal with a whole host of challenges: weather patterns, climate change, red tape, infrastructure that needs rebuilding and limited access to rural broadband Internet. The last thing farmers need is to be unable to fix their tractors, combines and other machinery with electronic components.

A right-to-repair approach would empower our farmers to do what they do best: Steward the land and maintain their equipment so they can feed us all.

More broadly, as automation and globalisation continue to force rapid changes to our economy, we need smart plans in place to ensure farmers have a government that works for them.

The right-to-repair approach is a simple but far-reaching way to support farmers and rural Ontario.

As a rancher named Jeff Buckingham bluntly and rightly said: “At the end of the day, I bought this equipment, and I want everything I need to keep it running without relying on the manufacturer or dealer.”

I agree.

— Coteau is a Liberal MPP, who represents Don Valley East.