The provincial Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs promises to lessen red tape for farmers.
Ernie Hardeman hosted a roundtable discussion in Owen Sound on Tuesday with about 15 farmers and representatives of area agricultural organizations.
Hardeman said he wanted to hear directly from farmers what kind of regulations are making their job more difficult.
He made a distinction between redundant regulations and those that keep our food and water safe.
"Red tape is something that has no purpose for its existence. When you fill out the form and nobody at the other end reads the form to do anything with it, that's red tape. When you're putting something in there to make sure we get safe, high-quality food that's not red tape that's required regulation and we have no intention of removing that," said Hardeman.
He added his government will keep its promise not to open up the greenbelt for development.
Hardeman said one of the issues he's hearing a lot about is the regulations around foreign workers. He said farmers want them loosened because they need more workers.
Hardeman is conducting similar roundtable discussions with farmers throughout the province. His government will take the information gathered and make an effort to eliminate unnecessary regulations.
"When we get it all together we will have some idea as to what regulations are needing adjusting and which ones don't," he said. "What is working for the farmers and what isn't."