The following policy priorities have been developed by the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association (OFVGA) for the 2025 provincial election with the goal of promoting and prioritizing our domestic fruit and vegetable sector.
With the steady decline of the rural farm labour pool, international agricultural workers are increasingly critical to the continued success and sustainability of labour-intensive agriculture sectors like fruit and vegetables. Federal policy requires that farms provide housing to these workers.
In recent years, Ontario farms have faced a growing number of obstacles when trying to renovate, replace or add worker housing. This includes provincial and municipal red tape, and escalating costs to meet provincial, municipal and federal government requirements. Farms and their workers are negatively affected by this.
A new agricultural worker housing policy is needed to address these obstacles and facilitate the ongoing modernization of farmworker housing in the province. An effective policy should include at minimum the below.
Helping growers meet on-farm housing septic system criteria in an economically feasible yet environmentally acceptable means by amending the Ontario Water Resources Act.
Working with municipalities to develop and implement a provincial agriculture lens for municipal decision-making regarding worker housing (e.g. through guidance documents etc.) that enables municipalities to more consistently apply the Ontario Building Code, Ontario Fire Code, and Provincial Planning Statement to farm worker housing in ways that support domestic food production and reduce barriers for on-farm worker housing, and provides municipalities with viable alternatives to charging farms prohibitively high development charges, permitting fees, and other fees relating to on-farm farm worker housing, and encourages the adoption of these alternatives.
Priority: Protecting and promoting Ontario's production
Ontario's growers rely on local and international markets to sell their safe, high-quality fruits and vegetables. To ensure strong demand for locally grown fruits and vegetables the OFVGA is looking for the next Ontario government to commit to implementing a policy that prioritizes "local first" for government procurement of fruits and vegetables, including for programs like the Student Nutrition Program, and further promoting produce consumption through health care policy, and promoting barrier-free trade and policy alignment interprovincially and with our largest trading partner, the U.S., where 85% of Ontario's greenhouse vegetable production is destined.
Priority: Responsiveness to US policies impacting Ontario agriculture
Since the U.S. election in November 2024 the risks to maintaining a sustainable and level playing field have risen dramatically, including the continued threat of tariffs by President Trump, but also a massive injection of farm subsidies into their farm sectors directly competing with Ontario's fruit and vegetable farms.
The OFVGA and its members will be looking for the Ontario government to provide leadership to ensure that growers are not unduly and unfairly impacted by such adversarial U.S. policies, or any Canadian retaliatory actions in response to U.S. tariffs.
Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Grower's Association