By OMAFRA Ag Rep Brian Bell
Growth Plan focus group
You are invited to attend a focus group meeting to discuss the development of a strategy for the Northern Ontario Agriculture, Aquaculture and Food Processing sector under the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario. On May 3, 4, and 5, 2016 there are meetings in several locations across Northern Ontario. The intent of the Growth Plan for Northern Ontario is to guide long term decision-making and investment planning in Northern Ontario. It names eleven priority sectors including Agriculture, Aquaculture and Food Processing that can help to grow and diversify the Northern Ontario economy. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is leading the development of the strategy and needs input from a broad array of people, organizations and communities to create an effective strategy for the Northern Ontario Agriculture, Aquaculture and Food Processing sector. The meeting dates/locations are: Wednesday, May 4 from 1:30 to 4 pm (Eastern Time) as a WebEx meeting in Cochrane, Gore Bay, Powassan, Sudbury, Thessalon, Kapuskasing, Dryden, and Kenora with all locations linked by WebEx. Live meetings will be held Thursday, May 5 from 9 to 11 am in Echo Bay and Thursday, May 5 from 2 to 4 pm in Espanola. If you’d like to attend any of these meetings, please contact our Agricultural Information Contact Centre (AICC) at 1-877-424-1300 or ag.info.omafra@ontario.ca by May 2 to register for the meeting. If you can’t join one of these meetings, OMAFRA will be arranging other meetings at later dates and will be posting on-line a discussion paper on a strategy for the Agriculture, Aquaculture and Food Processing sector. We’ll notify you of those opportunities when they become available.