Yes.
Evidence of meeting #17 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was farming.
Evidence of meeting #17 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was farming.
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
I think not enough credit is given for production history or for education. As we said, all the big sow barns in 1997...people knew beans about pigs and they all went bankrupt or changed ownership; whereas we, as young people back then, had enough education, had a proven track record with a production history, but it was almost impossible for us to borrow money.
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
No credit is given for that. You borrow the same percentage on your dollar as Joe Blow down the road, who doesn't know anything about the farm industry but just wants to invest some money in it.
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
Our planned cashflow is so much better, because you have that extra production edge, right? They don't look at that.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Frank, your time is up, but, Keith, I think you wanted to comment.
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
In the 1980s a lot of farmers were in trouble. There was a farm survivor association. Dr. Gary Gurbin, who was the member of Parliament at that time, set up the Farm Debt Review Board, and I worked on that as a farmer member. My respect for banks went downhill quickly during that time. Dirty tricks were played on both sides of the board, but farmers were losing their farms. Not only was the farmer losing, his parents were going to lose their farm because they backed him. The banks played tricks too. These corporations all look after themselves before they look after anybody else.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Oh, Mr. Lobb. My mistake. I should have looked at the speakers' list.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think that's the first time you've called me Mr. Lobb.
10:10 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
My first question is for Greg and Dylan.
Dylan, you're still in high school, are you?
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. Not that this is going to solve agriculture at all, but it could be one small piece to help educate. Greg, especially in your line of business, the consumer being able to recognize a “made in Ontario” or “made in Canada” product.... It's been my experience that people my age aren't readily able to distinguish between something from Chile or something from Canada.
In high school, you're taught many things--Shakespeare and geography and history--but there are two things you're really not taught: how to manage your money and how to distinguish between what's made in your own country and what's good for you.
The Canadian Bankers Association has a program and a partnership with the federal government to give individuals in high school a very entry level ability to manage their money. Do you think it would be a good program if we could teach healthy eating, being able to distinguish the “made in Canada” product and the benefits of eating those products, either through Agriculture Canada or Health Canada?
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
Healthy eating is becoming more and more popular all the time. It might help to gain some interest with the youth if you took the healthy eating tack, and at the same time tried to create some awareness as to where agriculture is, where your food comes from, how to distinguish labels, and at the same time make labels clearer, because there are a lot of different takes on that. You can have labels saying “made in Mexico” and “produced in Canada” on the same item.
It needs to be a lot clearer, because it is becoming more and more popular for people to want Canadian food, and they are starting to realize that we need to follow up with it.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
My next question is for Wayne.
With your years as an accountant and with a background in an agriculture family, what do you see today as the major impediment for a young farmer to get in?
Obviously, being able to make a profit is one of them. But to be able to actually purchase a farm...is that something you're seeing across your area right now, that the young farmer isn't actually able to have either the down payment or the financing from an institution?
10:10 a.m.
As an Individual
Yes. I purchased my farm in 1965. I paid $25,000 for it. My farm is worth $500,000 today. When we started, my family was able to scrape together $12,000 for a down payment and we could carry the $12,000 mortgage.
When my son bought his farm this year, as a family we couldn't scrape together half of the money down, and he's struggling to make those payments. So there's absolutely no doubt about it.
The second thing that I see, under income tax, is that if you're going to pay for a $500,000 farm, you're going to have to make money and you're going to have to pay income tax. Income tax is a foreign word to a lot of farmers, but that's the reality of life.
In terms of the ability to get ahead today, I mentioned the cash basis accounting, and that's great, but again, it's going to be a challenge for people to buy real estate out there and go ahead.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. Thanks very much.
My last question is to the Koelens.
Obviously the pork industry has been, and continues to be, under considerable financial strain for a number of different reasons. The currency is obviously one of the main impediments right now.
For young farmers, what can we do to keep the pork industry alive in Canada and to keep that next generation of pork farmers coming along?
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Remove the inequities between the provinces. It's so devastating that Quebec has such a great support program for their farmers and we don't, and we're basically competing against them.
We're losing our shirt in Ontario. More pork from the U.S. and from Quebec comes into Ontario.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
I think we need a good risk management program, but I don't think we want to ask for a risk management program that covers our cost of production. I don't think that's realistic.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Other provinces should get rid of their risk management program for the cost of production.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Well, it would be nice if it were equal. It's insane that we actually compete with Quebec products—and we're just mentioning Quebec, because for us in the pork industry it's our biggest competitor right now. That's one thing.
What else could we be doing? Something we have already mentioned to you is the COOL. COOL is a devastating problem for us, too. We think the government should actually deal with that much faster than it is, because it's devastating.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
It's just going to take four years, four years of more losses. Why can we not have an interim COOL ourselves?
