Agriculture Committee on April 30th, 2015

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

I didn't realize that was part of the agriculture committee, but I guess that's part of your report.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Well, you used an analogy, and so did I.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

At the end of the day, I guess the question still remains: did they pay any money back to the Canadian taxpayer, yes or no? That's kind of simple.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

No, not directly. Indirectly, they will, yes.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Thank you. I appreciate the candour, Minister.

Can you update us on what kind of remuneration would have gone to either the board of directors or those who were left running the CWB and who, indications are, will be there for only a short period of time before they move on?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

The transition should be complete in early July, which is I think the number that G3 and the CWB are looking at. I haven't been privy to that. At the end of the day, then, the directors who are there now aren't eligible to move on to be part of the new entity. They actually stop.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Will they receive some form of severance or reward for their role in any of this? You've said that they've made the decision, so is there remuneration for them for doing what they've just done, which is to basically hand over the CWB?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Not from my department and not from Canadian taxpayers, no.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Is there any from the other entity called G3?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

I have no idea what the other entity will do. They're a private sector entity. I don't know what agreements they have. I don't.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Except that the folks who are there now are part of a crown corporation.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Sorry?

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

The folks who are there right now are part of a crown corporation. Right now, at the moment, they're part of a crown.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Well, it's not even a crown. It's an arm's-length holding of government, but it's not even considered a crown. It's an anomaly.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

But they report to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much—

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

They did, but they don't anymore.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Allen. Our time is up.

Now we'll go to Mr. Dreeshen of the Conservatives, please.

You have five minutes.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

To the minister and all of your folks from the department, I certainly thank you for being here.

As a grain farmer, I had no prouder moment than when we delivered the first loads of freedom wheat to our local elevator. That was made possible, of course, by our government's marketing freedom for western grain farmers act. With support for this from a majority of grain farmers, the government made it a priority to make marketing freedom for farmers as it went through the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board's single-desk monopoly. Also, as anticipated, we finally saw this commercialization of the Canadian Wheat Board earlier this month.

In the main estimates, there is $24 million allocated especially to the Canadian Wheat Board transition program. Can you go over that in some detail and tell us just what this actually means to farmers?

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

It's a tremendous opportunity for farmers to continue to market. They've shown us expertise in marketing their canola and special crops, everything outside of the old single desk, over the years. In fact, the intransigence of the board over the years actually gave rise to a growing and dynamic canola sector and the special crops sector, which probably wouldn't have had as big a footprint today as they do simply because the Wheat Board wouldn't allow changes to be made on the wheat, durum, and barley front.

Having said that, everyone I talk to now says we're actually starting to see more wheat grown. We had actually lost close to some 5 million acres of production in the last few years of the single desk, as farmers moved away to other rotational crops. That's one reason we're spending a tremendous amount of money and energy on wheat varieties now, because there's a growing demand to get back into something that's more saleable to the world out there.

The Wheat Board always held up Warburtons mills in Great Britain as their poster child for how everything worked well under the single desk. One of the first calls I got when we went public with the change we were going to make to the single desk was from Warburtons, saying, thank God you're doing that, because we were about to move all of our buys to Australia. The Wheat Board would not sell them what they wanted. They kept selling them what they had, and weren't looking at them as a customer and selling them what they were requiring. Warburtons contracted last year thousands of acres of cropland across western Canada to grow the varieties they want and need. So there are tremendous success stories out there with those changes.

Farmers have embraced it. There are still a few; there were a couple wandering around here yesterday, saying how terrible this is for their enterprises. They're talking in terms of losing tens of thousands. If they are, agri-stability will kick in. But I haven't seen that. I think they're blowing a little smoke.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thanks.

Another aspect, of course, is that we've heard about farmers getting older, retiring.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Just look at you and me.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Yes, I know.

It's a case of having your life savings in your farm. As far as pension plans and all of those other types of things are concerned, that's where your retirement is. Of course, when we talk about the expanded lifetime capital gains exemption for farmers, it goes a long way in helping succession planning, looking at children and grandchildren being able to take over the farm.

I know we've talked about that. As you mentioned in your comments earlier, this is in budget 2015. I was just wondering if you could, perhaps a little bit more specifically, provide the details regarding the lifetime capital gains exemption for farmers, how it's going to be implemented, and how it's going to work out for them.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

When we first took government in 2006 the capital gains exemption stood at $500,000. Of course, over that last nine years now we've seen a tremendous growth in the value of farmland as well as the farm entity itself. There's going to be some capital gain recaptured.

We first changed it to $750,000. Then we indexed it, so it's sitting around $813,000 and change, I think, if I remember the number correctly. Now we've moved it to the $1 million mark, which is reflective of the increases we've seen on farms.

Most of the farms out in our country are well north of that $1 million value. I've seen several that were sold for $20-plus million. It does make a significant difference on the bottom line when farmers decide to sell out. It certainly helps pave the way so that the next generation can pay a little less from dad, if at all possible, and dad and mom still have enough to retire on in the lifestyle of their choice.

It's just one of those things that government can and should do, just every once in a while, to bring things up to current status. That's why our programs at Ag Canada evolve. Farming has changed drastically in the last 5, 10, 20 years. It's only right that our programming change as well, including our tax program.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dreeshen.

Now I want to welcome Mr. McKay from the Liberal Party, who's joining our committee.

Mr. McKay, five minutes, please.