ROSEVILLE, ONT.—Under fire in rural Ontario for putting horse farms in jeopardy, Premier Dalton McGuinty braved mud at a rain-soaked International Plowing Match to promise legislation aimed at boosting sales of Ontario-grown food.

Still on the drawing board, the bill would “get your products into more places,” McGuinty told dozens of farmers crowded into a tent as the skies opened on the site just west of Kitchener.

The NDP brought forward a local food bill two years ago aimed at boosting purchases of Ontario meats and produce by government ministries for their operations.

“Hopefully we’re actually setting a real example here and not just playing up to the crowd,” New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath told reporters.

If every Ontario family shifted $10 of their weekly grocery budget to food grown in the province, it would boost home-grown agri-business culture by $2.4 billion a year and create 10,000 new jobs, the minority Liberal government claimed.

“We’d like to see it driven more and more by Ontario families,” said McGuinty, noting he’ll consult with opposition parties and the industry in developing a bill that will set targets for food production, processing and sales.

One goal is to “sit down” with major grocery chains who often sell U.S. and other foreign produce even though local equivalents are available, such as peaches and nectarines now crowding farmers’ markets, McGuinty added.

His remarks came after organizers of the 99th annual plowing match — a major exhibition for rural Ontario in a tent city sprawling across prime farmland — cancelled the parade because muddy roadways made it too dangerous.

The sloppy conditions made for some interesting vignettes, such as the Green Party tractor hauling a busload of Liberal MPPs out of a gooey rut and three cabinet ministers, Chris Bentley, Kathleen Wynne and Deb Matthews, pushing Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott’s new Chevy Cruze out of the ooze.

“That’s how minority government can work,” a grateful Elliott (Whitby–Oshawa) quipped later.

Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said he was happy to hear of McGuinty’s local food bill after the government hit rural Ontario hard by scrapping a program that shared $345 million annually in proceeds from slot machines with horse racing tracks and breeders.

“I worry the current government has forgotten about rural Ontario,” Hudak added, saying his party has been pushing local food efforts for years.

“If the premier’s finally come around, great.”

McGuinty acknowledged scrapping the revenue-sharing program to fight the $14.8-billion deficit has been “difficult” for the horse-racing industry and pointed to a panel of former cabinet ministers from all three parties who are working on a transition plan.

“We’re committed to listening and we’re committed to getting this right...we all want a strong and sustainable horse-racing industry,” said the premier, whose government lost several rural seats in last October’s election, in part due to voter anger about wind turbines.

McGuinty has paid a political price for not listening to rural concerns, particularly on the horse racing issue, said Horwath.

“This is something the government did without prior consultation.”

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McGuinty again signalled the next target in his war on the deficit with public sector wage freezes, now that teachers have been dealt with, will be bureaucrats in the civil service.

“We’ll be moving forward with an initiative in the not-too-distant future that will address broader public sector compensation issues,” he told reporters.

“It’s something that we need to do.”

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