Good afternoon. I apologize for my husband, John Cote, not being here, but when the invitation came out to attend this, we both wanted to attend, and I'm really sorry to say that John's a very poor arm wrestler.
John and I both farm at Leask, which is about 70 miles north of Saskatoon. We have four children who are involved in the operation. It's called Lumec Farms, and it's a grain farm. Our farm turns 90 next year. Now, there are not many businesses that can boast that, and in Saskatchewan, if nothing else, we're one of the young guys.
It's no secret that farming has been good to us. Over the years our farm has changed from a mixed farm to a grain farm, to an extensive grain farm, to a diversified grain farm, which included an animal nutrition consulting business and partnerships in a fuel and fertilizer dealership. About the only thing constant in our farm is constant change.
Farming has been a fantastic business to three generations: grandparents, parents, and now my husband and I. But who knows if it's going to carry on to the next generation? And is that a bad thing? Maybe not. If my kids don't go back to farming, it doesn't mean that the land is going to sit idle. It doesn't mean that world production is going to drop. I have seen a lot of farmers leave the industry, but I haven't seen one farm sit idle yet. Ever since we've switched from hunter-gatherers to being involved in the agriculture community, to growing our own crops, people have been leaving that type of business and moving to the town. It's a pretty hard trend to buck. If we're going to look to increasing rural Saskatchewan or rural wherever--if that's what we want to do--maybe we have to look outside of agriculture.
Here are some thoughts. Farms are growing right now in size because that is what makes them profitable. We're not growing in size because we say, “My God, I want to be big.” We're not a Conrad Black. It's not that we want to dominate the industry. We are just trying to put some money back in our pockets, and it's the economies of scale that earn us dollars. There's only so much land out there. If you're going to divide it up, if you're going to need to go to economies of scale, what you're going to have is bigger farms. But maybe that's not the way we want it. Maybe we do want people to come back into agriculture, and if we do want them to come back into agriculture, there are a few things that we need to do.
But here's another thing about not coming back to the farm. If my kids don't come back to the farm, as I said, the land is still going to be farmed and the production is going to continue. The only problem that I really see is that the community is going to suffer because my kids aren't staying there. My kids are gone because there's no industrial base, there's nothing else to keep them there. So if they leave, the community gets smaller. Services dwindle. The farmers who do stay are penalized even more for being where they are, because now we have limited access to health services, we cannot get quality education, and we don't have a dentist within a hundred miles. Those are pretty high prices to pay for being on the land and producing food for everybody, and I don't think that's really fair.
It's the lack of emergency health care that we really are concerned about. I don't need a doctor in my hometown if I have the flu. I can drive for that. But if I chop my arm off in a baler, I want somebody there instantly, and I want good care. I've had four children. I've delivered in a hospital that is 70 miles away. There's nobody in any other town who would say that. If you go to Toronto, if you go to Saskatoon, for that matter, nobody travels an hour-plus to deliver a baby. Why should I have to pay that price just because I've chosen to farm?
If we do want to bring farmers back on the land, I have a few ideas. My husband and I sat down and put a few thoughts together. We do think agriculture is a great place to be.
The first thing we want to take a look at is subsidies. Right now, Canadian farmers are subsidized through various levels and various programs. So be it. Common-sense thinking leads us to believe that these subsidies are useful, but what ends up happening is they get recapitalized back into the farm. Therefore, the price of land goes up, the business goes up, and young entrants have a really tough time stepping into the business.
Someone who's been farming for 20 or 30 years, subsidized to that level, can afford to pay more for an asset than somebody who's a new entrant. There's just no question about it. Maybe a solution is that we start decreasing the subsidies. Have them in place, as Kalissa said, for the first five years for those who need them to get their feet on the ground. Drop it down as the farmers get older in years and more established. It might be an incentive for them to leave the farm to somebody else who's new and coming in.
Tie subsidies to education: if you don't go up for advanced training, you don't qualify for subsidies. If we don't improve our farming education and have a very strong, smart group of farmers, I don't think we'll see a future in farming.
Something else Stuart mentioned was promotion. We have a bad rap out there. But we're also drawing on agriculture replacements to come from the current agriculture pool. That's dwindling, so we have fewer and fewer people to pick from. We need to move it out. Increase the total amount of agriculture happening, whether it's on large farms, small farms, or whatever. Just keep it rolling. That way we have more activity, more economics, and more things happening.
Let's get solar farms and wind farms and the bio-economy going. It hasn't been economical, right? That's where you guys come in. Legislate it in if that's what it takes. The ethanol business didn't get going until it was mandated that ethanol be included at a certain level in fuel. If that's what it takes, maybe that's the taxpayers' way of paying for looking after the environment. That's the way of moving it back.
There are so many things to say and there is so little time. I would love it if you could come out to the farm any time. We'd love to talk about this.
One last point I want to make is that when you're making your assessments and you're making your decisions, please don't make programs for local agriculture at the expense of the environment. Agriculture should be agriculture without borders. We should be planting things, growing things, and producing things where they're best suited on the planet.
Agriculture is by far the most noble profession in the world. We have two challenges. First, we have to feed the planet. Second, we have to sustain the environment. There's nobody else who's going to do it. It's not up to the religious leaders. It's not up to the medical profession or the politicians. We are on the ground. We are the ones who can do this. I think we have the capability to do it. I listen to the passion in these young guys. They can take us forward. We just need a little bit of help to get things rolling.
Thank you.
