(Queen’s Park) – In the Legislature today, MPP Randy Hillier grilled the Agriculture Minister in support of his colleague’s, MPP Bob Runciman’s Bill 132, Liquor Licence Amendment Act (Fruit Wine), 2008. The Bill would provide access to farmers markets for Ontario’s burgeoning fruit wine industry.
During Question Period MPP Hillier demanded an apology from the Minister for contradictory statements and broken promises by her, the Minister of Government Services and the Government House Leader. “Minister, last week I asked you about Bill 132 and the sale of fruit wine at farmers markets. You said it’s in Committee, your House Leader has promised swift passage, but here’s another letter from the Government Services Minister saying he won’t allow the sale of fruit wine at farmers markets. Minister, which one of you is telling the truth? Or are any of you telling the truth?” Hillier charged.
In media reports last, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Government Services reportedly stated that Mr. Hillier’s assertions were in fact true.
Hillier pressed the Minister to correct seemingly misleading statements regarding the status and fate of Bill 132 around the Cabinet table and in the Committee process to no avail.
“We have a government speaking in contradictions and broken promises,” Hillier noted. “I have no faith that the promises made by this government for swift passage of Bill 132 will be honoured. In the meantime, we will have lost yet another family farm and family business in Countryman’s Estate Winery,” Hillier concluded.
Randy Hillier, MPP Lanark Frontenac Lennox, is a co-founder of the Lanark Landowners Association, which was brought to life to address government imposition on the rights of private property owners, and to address the regressive regulatory impositions that government was bringing down upon farmers and business owners in rural Ontario.
In 2006, Randy resigned as President of the OLA in order to run as a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives. Randy was elected in the 2007 provincial election.
Randy a long-time resident of Lanark County, an electrician by trade and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), continues to co-publish and edit rural Ontario’s successful magazine “The Landowner.”
