An ‘incredible opportunity’: Niagara West MPP becomes provincial ag minister
By Luke Edwards
The Province’s newest agriculture minister may have grown up in a farm family in one of the most fertile parts of Ontario, but Sam Oosterhoff said he’s not taking anything for granted.
A cabinet shakeup by Premier Doug Ford last month saw a promotion for the Niagara West MPP, who was named Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness. He takes over from Trevor Jones, who was moved to the Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development portfolio.
“Coming from a family with a dad who’s a farmer and whose brothers are farmers, and working on the pork farm as a kid myself, it’s just a really incredible opportunity to be able to serve the people I love,” he said.
Oosterhoff said he spent his first days as minister absorbing as much information as possible, and plans to continue to do that in the coming weeks and months. While he comes from a farming community and a farming family, the new minister was quick to point out he’s not the expert and doesn’t want to make all his decisions from his office in Queen’s Park.
“I believe in getting out and meeting with people who know the sector and learning from them directly, recognizing that I don’t know nearly as much as people who have worked in this space, and who have the experience and expertise that I’m going to be relying on,” he said.
Some of his priorities may come as no surprise. At the top of his list is continuing the work to make Ontario’s ag and food sector more resilient in the face of tariffs and the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“I think there’s a lot of growth potential right now, especially in an era where we have, of course, a lot of geopolitical instability and trade challenges, which can be alarming, but also present opportunities for more domestic food processing, domestic consumption,” he said.
Beyond that he said he wants to make sure “government moves faster when it comes to permits, when it comes to reducing red tape and getting out of the way of entrepreneurs and visionaries.”
Finally, Oosterhoff said he wants to simply offer his support to farmers, and do what his ministry and government can to reduce costs and make life more affordable. At the same time he said he wants to see investments in areas that will grow opportunities for the ag sector, from market diversification to food processing sector development.
Locally, Oosterhoff said the ongoing irrigation projects in Niagara and Leamington will be top of mind, and he offered his support in ensuring they continue to progress.
“We have an incredible group of tender fruit growers, an incredible group of farmers with high value lands, high value commodities per acre, especially below the escarpment, so to see that project come to fruition and hopefully be able support it along the way, both with the $41 million but also through sort of shepherding it through the government processes is going to be something I’ll be staying on top of for sure,” he said, referring to funding announced last year for the irrigation projects in Niagara and Leamington.
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