Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
My name is Rob Brunell. I'm a grains and oilseeds producer in the province of Manitoba, about two and a half hours straight west of here, on the shores of another lake in this province, Lake Dauphin.
From being the chair of the Young Farmers Committee, sitting on the Canadian Young Farmers Forum board, and talking with young producers across Canada, I think there are a few key points I'd like to make.
First, when we develop policy in this country, I think there should be a baseline we build on, and that is profitability for farmers. If we can achieve that somehow, or improve profitability, I think a lot of the other issues we are dealing with will resolve themselves.
Programs under the APF that we've gone through in the past five years, and the ones we're building on, should focus on primary production in agriculture. We shouldn't be training producers for off-farm jobs or how to leave the farm; we should focus on agriculture and primary production.
On delivery agencies and how programs are delivered, there are prime examples of that. I sit on the environmental farm planning board for the province. It's a federal, provincial, and third-party delivery agency. I think that's an effective way to deliver programs through the next generation of the APF. We see how effective they can be and how they can deal with the changes and needs of producers. It is designed for the producers it's being delivered to--live producers--in conjunction with both levels of government.
On the other hand, the Canada–Manitoba farm stewardship program, which delivers the BMP dollars, is a federal government agency and it is not so flexible. The turnaround time for payments on these BMPs is slow, and it affects how producers and young producers access and make environmental changes on their operation.
That shows the two different delivery mechanisms in the same program and how one can be effective and achieve its goals how and how one is lagging behind.
When we develop agricultural policy, I think we have to look at it as a long-term vision. Being a young producer, a fourth-generation producer--with possibly the fifth generation still seven months away--I ask how I am going to get to the age of my dad, when I can retire. We make plans and we try to achieve those plans. Yet when we develop policy, there is no long-term vision for agriculture. We don't know where we're going. We don't know where to invest, as producers. There are a lot of bad investments being made and a lot of good investments, but we're not too sure as to what direction we should be taking.
I think there's a real need for long-term vision when we're developing policy. Policy should not change at whim or at change of governments or what have you. We need something that will continue way beyond a five-year period. Let's look at five years or ten years down the road and how we can achieve these goals.
For a prime example, we can look south of us and see what they've done with their ethanol industry. It's taken years of planning and research and plant breeding to achieve high corn yields for ethanol production. There was a long-term goal. They're achieving that and moving forward. I think that's something we have to look forward to.
I think some of the programs delivered under the current APF, in education and the CASS, are good programs. We're seeing a lot of benefits to them. The delivery mechanism is different in every province. In the province of Manitoba, and actually not far from my hometown, they've created a framework to deliver CASS programs. It's another grassroots, local community development type of group that has taken on the task of helping their community access education.
On that note, I think the education delivered through these programs should focus on primary producers. There's a need to educate producers on a better marketing strategy, farm business management, and the list goes on and on. There are a lot of ways we can capture more of the pie through better management skills.
The Canadian Young Farmers' Forum is involved with a pilot project in Alberta that is developing best management practices and training young producers on better management practices, and I think these are important things. We look at the businesses we deal with in this country and in the world. A lot of farms don't gross as much money as some of these CEOs gross, and that's who we're doing business with directly.
I think the increase in public research dollars is another key area. Public research generally benefits farmers because the research is returned to the farmers so they can access it and use it better. They're not looking after corporate bottom lines and corporate structures. They're to benefit the public good and producers.
When we last met in Ottawa, we had a discussion around intergenerational transfers and that sort of thing. These programs I think are working, but when you sit down as a young producer and look at your farm's books or your dad's books, there is no way to pencil out a generational transfer. We are living on our equity. There's not enough money in there to pass that farm from generation to generation.
So I think there's the profitability, but there are other things. We look at increasing the capital gains exemptions and things like that. Those are important, because if you're passing a farm from one generation to the other, you can look at it and say you don't need to sell your farm for this much money because you lost this much in tax. You can lower your price, capture more dollars in the seller's pocket, and with the next generation as the purchaser, your purchase price is lower. So we're helping each other out.
In closing, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present. This is the fourth time I've presented on consultations on the APF, round one and round two, and then we've done a one-on-one consultation with the AAFC staff with the Canadian Young Farmers, so I think this is great that you're listening to producers.
My hope is that at the end of this and in the development of these policies, producers are heard, that we have a large stake in this next round. I'm looking forward to seeing what's coming out of this. And I hope we are heard, because if not, I think this has all been a waste of time.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.