SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
April 10, 2024 09:00AM
  • Apr/10/24 3:00:00 p.m.

Everybody knows what Finding Nemo is.

Interjection.

I didn’t know that. So that points to something else: that perhaps we need to do, together, as the agriculture sector—again, agriculture and aquaculture aren’t exactly the same thing. But as a research sector, we need to do a better job of making sure that everybody else knows what we’re doing—because unless the general population knows, then you have a chance of losing it. One of the great things about this job is that we can bring this forward and, hopefully, spark someone’s attention.

Someone the members on the government side didn’t mention, who came to committee, who I thought was very interesting, and I’ll just find his—I don’t quote people very often, and that’s why I have such a hard time finding the quotes when I want to find them. Mr. Gerald Schipper chaired a dairy advisory committee at Ridgetown college. Ridgetown is also an ARIO site. In Elora, they’ve got new dairy facilities, and they are state-of-the-art, and that is where very critical research is being done. Someone on the government side, I believe, the minister or—I can’t remember which one of you said it, but it was a very good point, about methane, about where the research—so that there will be less methane coming from cattle; specifically, dairy cattle. What Mr. Schipper brought forward was also a good point. In agriculture, we are also facing a big labour shortage. So not everyone who is going to end up working in the dairy sector, in production, as an example, is going to be destined to do research at that high-end facility. Like Ridgetown also was beneficial for someone who wants to learn how to be a better herd manager, or to be—right? That not necessarily, but right now, Ridgetown is an outdated facility that, quite frankly, is pretty close to not passing for standards of care of dairy cattle. It’s an old tie-stall facility.

And he brought forward a good point. That’s something we need to look at too: So where are we going train the dairy managers? Because they are not always going to be—not everyone is destined to do high-end genetic research—it’s very important—or high-end feed research. It’s incredibly important. Right? But where are we going train the people who are going to manage herds?

And I’m focusing on dairy. I know dairy pretty well, so I’m not going to focus on the strawberry end as much. But there is a need because to be a manager of a dairy herd, it’s a very—as an example, it is not an easy job. You need a specific skill set. It’s a very skilled job and it’s a very good job.

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