Hydro costs, roads among election concerns for Ontario farmers

CAPTION:Farmers in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, say it can feel like the provincial government isn’t listening to them. Hydro costs, rural roads and the increased minimum wage are among concerns affecting some rural voters ahead of June’s provincial election. (May 17, 2018) 1. SOUNDBITE: Leon Leclair, farmer 2. SOUNDBITE: Louis Roesch, farmer 3. SOUNDBITE: Harry Lawson, farmer 4. SOUNDBITE: Jeff VanRoboys, farmer and owner of The Pickle Station PLACELINE: Chatham-Kent, Ont. CREDIT: The Canadian Press STORYLINE: Jeff VanRoboys laments the Ontario government's one-two punch that he says is hurting his cucumber harvesting business. The 40-year-old farmer and entrepreneur says his company — The Pickle Station, located about 300 kilometres west of Toronto — has been hit hard by sky-high hydro rates and a recent increase in minimum wage. "Those are my two biggest expenses to run the business and those are both government-controlled increases," he says from his sprawling processing plant in Chatham-Kent, where sorting lines and large harvesters stand idle on a warm spring day. VanRoboys apologizes that things are so quiet. The time to see the operation firing on all cylinders is in the summer, when the lines are fully staffed and operation is buzzing. That's also the time when high energy and labour costs hit the business the hardest, he says. When VanRoboys took over from his father in 2008, he says his hydro bill during the peak month of operation, August, was roughly $18,000. Fast forward to August 2017 and the bill for that same period was $42,000.