Ottawa officials are telling farmers not to worry about a proposed spending cut to a program designed to promote locally grown produce because the rural affairs department has a plan to minimize the impact of the cut.

The city is considering a $10,000 cut to its "buy local" program. That's about one-fifth of the program's total budget.

The money has been used to train farmers, to fund the Ottawa Farmers' Market at Lansdowne Park and to help market local produce.

The president of the Farmers' Market, Andy Terauds, said Monday he was surprised to hear about the proposed reduction in funding for buy-local initiatives.

The co-owner of Acorn Creek Garden Farm, Terauds is also on the board of Savour Ottawa, a city-funded program that helps consumers recognize local produce in shops and restaurants.

"The city has been supporting local quite strongly for quite a while, and it was just getting going. So I was surprised to see them stop, or cut back on it when they did," Terauds said.

Looking for other funding

Derrick Moodie, a rural affairs officer with the City of Ottawa, said Monday the department will reach out to neighbouring municipalities that benefit from the city's buy-local programs to make up the difference.

"We're hoping that the impact will be very minimal. We're looking to leverage some relationships and some funding from other partners in order to offset that cost," he said.

Moodie said his department will continue to provide support to Terauds and local producers like him.

The budget cut is part of the city effort to trim next year's overall budget.

Mayor Larry O'Brien has said he would like to limit any tax increase to four per cent.

A public consultation on the proposed budget cuts will take place in January before city council votes on them.