Thank you for your question.
It is becoming increasingly more difficult for young farmers to get into farming. It's apparent because you see it everywhere, whenever you talk to anybody in our group. Any young farmers or young people coming home from college are faced with a large debt in order to expand to accommodate two people at home. It's difficult.
I'm going to start again here. We'll go to the future farmer program.
The program has treated young Island farmers very well in the past four and soon to be five years. Interest rebate assistance is pro-rated according to education level. It actually gives an incentive to young people to finish school rather than quitting school to come home and farm. It kind of cuts their “kick at the can” a little shorter, so to speak; it limits their potential if you don't provide this incentive. That's not to say everybody will quit school if it's not there. There are currently 170 young farmers enrolled in the program.
This program is also is used for training assistance. Up to 50% of the eligible costs are covered, including travel, accommodation, and actual course costs. I think it's a very useful tool.
As a criterion for this, business plans need to be conducted. A business plan never hurts anybody. I think it's a very important tool to plan and have a vision for your farm and to see where your vision fits into Canada's vision of agriculture.
I'd also like to suggest that if this program is implemented nationwide, it needs to be implemented at a federal-provincial level, with maybe a 60-40 split. It's the kind of program to build on agriculture, not a disaster type of situation. I think it would free up provincial money for other assistance for innovation and to do research that may move the industry forward.