ONTARIO – As an advocacy organization for farmers, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) takes action to ensure the concerns of its members come to the attention of decision-makers.
Our priority areas as an organization are driven by the actions and policies of all three levels of government, by our strategic plan and by our membership in the form of resolutions they bring forward.
These govern our activities for the year, and annually, it’s our job to report back to members on what we’ve accomplished.
Any OFA member – individual, federation or member organization – can put a resolution forward to our provincial board of directors at any point in the year.
Most commonly, they are presented, debated and voted on at our annual general meeting in November.
All resolutions submitted are reviewed by the OFA resolutions committee, which I’m chairing this year.
We don’t accept or reject resolutions; our role is to make sure each is complete, clearly stated and focuses on an issue that hasn’t already been addressed.
The real work begins once a resolution is passed.
The provincial board reviews each resolution and carefully considers how each resolution fits with our organization’s mandate and priorities and what implications it may have on our human and financial resources.
This results in an action plan of next steps that may involve board members, staff and other stakeholders, depending on the issue.
We communicate that action plan back to whoever originally submitted the resolution.
Once a year, in the lead up to the annual meeting, a full professional Resolutions Activity Report is provided to all members where the OFA addresses in detail all resolutions passed in the last year and every decision and action that were taken to address each one, including copies of any correspondence that was sent.
This information is also available on an ongoing basis through an online members-only database on the OFA website and by contacting OFA’s member service representatives, provincial directors, or the OFA office in Guelph.
Our goal is to ensure that all members, not just the submitting person or organization, can find out what happened to every resolution.
To me, resolutions are one of the most important building blocks of the democratic process that governs our organization.
They give voice to the grassroots membership by helping us understand member wants and needs, and by voting on resolutions, members let us know the issues they want us to focus on.
Sometimes they are regional in nature – railway crossings on private lands are a significant issue in eastern Ontario for example.
Other times, they’re provincial in nature, such as land use planning issues that impact all regions of Ontario, but they can also address federal issues that have impacts on farmers, like taxation changes or tariffs on fertilizer imports.
And they don’t always just address farm business issues. We regularly see resolutions about rural health care, farmer mental wellness, rural high speed internet and cellular connectivity challenges and more.
As a board and as an organization, we value the engagement of our members and the directions and priorities they set, and we work hard at making sure we represent their needs by taking action on each and every resolution.
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Paul Vickers is vice president of Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Vickers represents midwestern Ontario farmers in Bruce and Grey counties.