The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario appeared before
a legislative committee at Queen’s Park in Toronto this week, suggesting that
the proposed Local Food Act could be improved by enabling farmers who make
donations to food banks to claim a receipt for a charitable-donations tax
break.
The CFFO also recommended that the legislation provide for “aggregators,”
meaning operations that collect food from a number of farms into volumes that
are suitable for local retailers.
The CFFO said some customers may want to feature
locally-produced food, but aren’t prepared to collect it from dozens of local
farms to achieve the volume they require.
The charitable-donations proposal has been brought forward
several times in the legislature by Tory Bob Bailey of the Sarnia area as a
private-member bill.
It is sitting in the backlog now as Bill 104.
