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PC's "White Paper" Calls for Red Tape Reduction

The Ontario PC Party has been floating ideas in what they're calling the "White Paper". It's a series of policies of what the Conservatives would do if they are elected in a future vote. Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman, who is the agriculture critic for Ontario, has released a series of these "White Paper" policies dealing with the farm sector. He says the main plank of the platform hopes to make farmer's jobs easier. "In the white paper, the #1 issue is red tape. Over 75% of all three surveys said that was their #1 issue. We've put forward a proposal to reduce that by 33% over 3-years." Hardeman says when a farmer goes to build a barn, they may have to contact as many as five separate ministries to earn approval. He says the Conservatives want to create a one-window approach, that would simplify farmers' interaction with the government, "To make it possible to spend more time doing their farming, doing their business, than shuffling paper for the government." Other key pillars of the Conservatives farming platform include building a new Food Terminal in Ontario, and mandating 2% of diesel fuel in the province consist of bio-diesel. Hardeman says the benefits of creating the need for bio-fuel in the province is three-fold, "Not only that we have the benefit of more environmentally friendly diesel fuel, but also the positives of taking that product out of the waste stream, and putting it into fuel. And thirdly, it creates the jobs for the actual processing of the bio-fuel."

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