Agriculture committee  Yes, that's a fair statement, and the classic example is the Canadian Wheat Board issue. We've surveyed our members extensively on the Canadian Wheat Board. We've asked them about marketing their own wheat and barley outside of the Canadian Wheat Board. They're ready to do it.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we do. I just don't have it with me. But that's something I could forward to the committee for sure.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. Our recommendation on the lifetime capital gains exemption is to index it to inflation annually. By indexing it, we won't see the value erode over time. Really, what we've been saying is that as we index things such as tax brackets and those kinds of things, we'd like to see the lifetime capital gains exemption indexed as well to ensure that it keeps up with inflation every year.

Agriculture committee  Yes, that would be for not only farmers but for business owners as well. It's not exclusive to farmers, but that is our small business recommendation. We know that our farm members do use this as a significant retirement vehicle, so certainly that would be something our members would really appreciate in the 2012 budget.

Agriculture committee  It's 20% to 30% and 30% to 40%, yes. That's an example that has been brought forward, but certainly we need to have a look at that. We know our members are spending a lot of money on capital investments, and that would be a good place to start.

Agriculture committee  From our perspective, and certainly our farm members' perspective, branding is extremely important for any product they're producing. Again I must focus on the fact that the regulatory environment does hinder some of our members in terms of bringing products to market. I'll give you an example.

Agriculture committee  Our recommendations in our federal pre-budget submission focused...a first step would be around class 8 and class 10 agricultural equipment, things like combines, tractors, those kinds of things. We know that our farm members are making huge investments in capital. Currently, the capital cost allowance for those is 20% and 30% respectively, for class 8 and class 10.

Agriculture committee  We partner with an online university, and we actually offer our members a number of online business courses that they can take on business management, succession planning, farm safety—those various business issues. Basically, a lot of business issues apply to our farm members, and they certainly can take advantage of our member programs that we have in online training.

Agriculture committee  I think we all have a role to play, and certainly on the succession file it's more important that we're all on the same page on this, that we all plan for a successful transfer, because four out of ten farmers plan to exit their business in the next ten years. That is a big number, and that really is going to impact the success of the industry.

Agriculture committee  We worked with the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors as well on a succession guide specifically for farms, so there are those folks out there who are doing that groundwork so they can provide that service as well. We'll certainly be encouraging our members. We've been on this issue of succession for a number of years, and we will continue to encourage our members to get that plan in place, to have those difficult discussions, and move forward.

Agriculture committee  I'm glad you asked that question. We surveyed our members on a number of business practices they employ. We found that the farm members in our organization were more Internet savvy than many of our general business owners. We know that they are adapting and adopting new technology.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the question. Certainly, a trend we're seeing is that our members do not have formal succession plans. But I don't see that as a direct link in terms of folks not continuing on with farming because of the regulatory burden. As I said, it's our top priority. In every survey we've done on our farm members' top priorities, the top responses are regulatory reform and the reduction of red tape.

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. On behalf of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and our farm members across the country, I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to present our members' views today on the competitiveness enterprises pillars of Growing Forward 2. You should have a copy of our slide deck presentation, which I'd like to walk you through in the next couple of minutes.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I hear you fine. Thank you.