You will recall that in last year’s Annual Report, we stated that OCA continues to increase our lobbying activities in response to direction we received from you, our members.

We’re pleased to report again that OCA has been very active in lobbying throughout 2007.

Our premier event, the Queen’s Park Barbecue, was held on May 29th, and approximately 600 people were served Ontario Corn-Fed Beef (tenderloin). This event is one of the top food events at Queen’s Park, and is very useful in establishing our position with, our elected MPPs.

Also at Queen’s Park, OCA President, Ian McKillop and Vice-President, Gord Hardy, along with OCA Communications Manager, Lianne Appleby, took part in the launch of the province’s Pick Ontario Freshness campaign. During this one-day event, a mini-farmers’ market was set-up on the lawn of the Legislature and Ontario commodity associations were invited to showcase their products for MPPs, the media and Queen’s Park staff. As well last year, Directors participated in four different lobbying events in Ottawa (which we refer to as “Fly-In Days”) to promote your interests. The event of which we are most proud, however, had the least publicity.

Through the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, we participated in an event to honour troops returning from Afghanistan. Several OCA Board members and local Advisory Councillors attended the event held at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, where soldiers returning from their tour of duty in Afghanistan (and their families) were proudly served Canadian beef steaks.

This year was an election year for Ontario and the results saw the governing Liberals return to power. The Honourable Leona Dombrowsky has returned to her pre-election portfolio of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and this was good for our industry. Due to Minister Dombrowsky’s knowledge of her portfolio, she was able to react quickly and responded to our request for support with $40 million for beef farmers, to assist us through the awful second half of 2007. We would like to thank the Minister for her demonstrated leadership and continued strong support of our industry.

As well this year, a contract has been signed with OMAFRA with regard to the $4M grant to OCA that was announced at the 2006 International Plowing Match. This funding will be used to support efforts to market Ontario beef within the province, to advance age verification, to expand abattoir capacity in under-serviced areas, and to help disseminate Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Our work is not done, however. OCA will lobby for a federal response to the provincial program. We will also request a separate risk management program for beef. The plan for this is now under development. One of the major problems with the current risk management program is that of declining reference margins. Due to BSE, we missed the top of the cycle, and have not had the good years necessary to build up reference margins. We will continue to lobby for enhanced reference margins, and have received a consultant’s report examining ways to improve margins for producers within the program.

Finally, OCA continued to publish our government newsletter The Ontario Steakholder (OS) in 2007, with three issues going out over the course of the year. OS is the tool that allows OCA to provide government with the inside information needed to gradually build a better understanding of our industry, so that politicians are better able to work on your behalf. While hardcopies are not made available to producers, you can download PDF files from the OCA Web site.