A move by the provincial Ministry of Agriculture has a local MPP shaking his head.
Bill Murdoch is upset over the Ministry’s move to slash it’s budget for food safety, public health and environmental programs while increasing spending on administration.
The budget for public health and the environment is down 27 per cent from last year, while spending for bio-products and rural communities is down 18.4 per cent.
The Bruce Grey Owen Sound MPP says he is shocked why the Liberal government would be cutting from these programs.
Murdoch says the move also doesn’t surprise him because he says the provincial government loves to spend taxpayers money on hiring more staff which he says there is already too many right now and is a problem with the system.
Agriculture officials insist the 5.3 million dollar hike in administration costs is not an actual increase in spending, but a reallocation of staff and resources.
Officials also says the 2.4 million cut in spending on public health and the environment was the result of an end to federally funded programs.
The 184 million in spending cuts to the food and bio-product sectors and rural communities were one time payments not repeated this year, including a special 56 million dollar grant to the University of Guelph
