Evidence of meeting #19 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 program.
Table egg producer, Fédération des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation du Québec
That is why the new farmer assistance program, which contributes 5,000 egg-producing hens, was set up. We want to give people who are not from farming families the opportunity to produce for public consumption, which would be much more difficult without this support of 5,000 egg-producing hens.
President, Fédération de la relève agricole du Québec
To pick up on that, over the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about preparing for a transfer. It takes a great deal of time to prepare for a transfer. Nonetheless, there is an increasing trend to use the term “sustainable enterprise”. An enterprise that is sustainable will be much easier to transfer regardless of who operates it.
It is less about preparing for the transfer and more about the sustainability of the businesses, the way they are set up and market prices that will make the farms more attractive, easier to transfer and operate, namely by people who are not from the agricultural community.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
I have just one quick question, and maybe Mr. Van Tassel can answer.
What is the revenue overall for agriculture in Quebec, and what percentage of your revenue is from agriculture that is exported out of the province?
First Vice-President, Fédération des producteurs de cultures commerciales du Québec
That's hard. I'm not sure I can answer that. There are certain sectors that do quite a bit of exportation. You have the hog sector, which exports 50%. As for the rest, the grain sector some years can export a little bit and other years imports a little bit, but it's pretty well self-sufficient. Then you have supply management for the Canadian interior.
Liberal
First Vice-President, Fédération des producteurs de cultures commerciales du Québec
You would have to ask Mr. Groleau that.
Chairman, Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec
Yes, we export about 30% to 38% of our cheese or our yogourt production to the other provinces, if we can call that exportation, since it is inside the country.
Conservative
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
What we are talking about this morning is very important. That is why we are conducting this study and visiting all the regions of Canada. That is what brings us here to Quebec City and to Quebec.
The federal government has some initiatives in place to help young farmers. For example, we have increased capital gains exemptions to $750,000 in order to encourage the transfer of farms to young people. What is more, if I recall correctly, every MP here voted in favour of the Canadian Agricultural Loans Act. That was last summer. We passed the bill in order to improve loans for farmers, young farmers in particular. I think the total value was $1 billion, and that was for young farmers' cooperatives.
We have had discussions with many farmers across Canada. There are certainly two main challenges. The first is the cost of getting started in agriculture, what it costs to buy equipment, land, cows, quota, etc. The second challenge is annual income. The income needs to be high enough to attract young people.
As far as annual income is concerned, a few factors need to be taken into account. We have to consider market price. We cannot control the price of the products. However, we have to consider government programs and initiatives. We are here to see whether there is something we can do to improve the situation.
I greatly appreciated the comments by the egg producers. My riding is near Quebec. It is located between Ottawa and the Quebec border. There are many francophones and anglophones in my riding. It is a rural riding and we have some egg producers. Most of them are young, between the ages of 30 and 40.
I did not know there was a program to help young egg farmers. I would like to know whether the same thing exists in other provinces or if this applies only to egg farmers in Quebec.
Communications officer, Fédération des producteurs d’oeufs de consommation du Québec
Our program is for Quebec, but there are similar programs in other provinces. Some provinces are putting similar systems in place.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I know there is also a program for dairy farmers. In Ontario, they talk about a 12 kg quota for young farmers. However, that program is for 10 farmers in the province. It is more or less the same number here, but it is slightly different.
Chairman, Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec
It is the same program as in Quebec. They adopted Quebec's program.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Let us talk about the latest initiatives taken by the farming associations.
Are there farming associations that are implementing initiatives like these to help young farmers, pork producers or grain producers? Are there programs in place to help and encourage young people to get involved?
Frédéric could answer the question first and then William.
President, Fédération de la relève agricole du Québec
It is specific to production. For hatching eggs there is a similar program to the one for table eggs. Poultry producers have a similar program, as do strawberry and raspberry growers. Other producers who are not under supply management do not have any programs. There are some who do not have any programs. However, collectively, since they are all insured by income stabilization insurance in Quebec, young people starting out are entitled to a 25% discount on their insurance premiums for two consecutive years up to a certain maximum.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Many farmers here in Quebec are pork producers. Why do those producers not target young people to implement various programs to encourage young people?
President, Fédération de la relève agricole du Québec
That is because they are just trying to survive. Farmers are in a very precarious situation. As I was saying earlier, I know young people who are in pork production, who studied pork production in university and who made the rational choice not to take over the family pork business. Pork production is a unique case. Even if we wanted a program for young people, the income just is not there.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Okay.
William, do you want to add anything?
First Vice-President, Fédération des producteurs de cultures commerciales du Québec
As he was just saying, as is the case for grain production, we pay a premium to our income stabilization insurance program. All farmers get 25% off for two years.
Conservative
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Thank you very much.
I want to go to Madame Delomier, or maybe Mr. Marcoux. I'm curious about the proposal you put on the table. Basically, a third of the money would go into a land transfer fund so that a beginning farmer could buy land. I think that's what it meant, to buy a farm. Am I understanding that correctly? It would be basically one-third, one-third, one-third.
That's what I think I heard Ms. Delomier say, and maybe you could clarify that. I'm following up on the chairman's comments. If we did that, what would happen if somebody contributed for five or ten years...the province and the federal government did, and that person chose not to...? What would happen?
Second, if the federal or provincial governments contributed to that, do you see a concern that it would create an artificial value on a farm because now there would be a two-thirds advantage by that person over anyone else to buy into the operation?
Those are just questions for clarification.
President, Fédération de la relève agricole du Québec
On your first question, over 10 years, if people said they wouldn't transfer to the farm, the money would go back to the government. So it's only to influence the transfer over the....
As far as dismantling is concerned, does this create speculation or an artificial price? I do not think so because money put aside will still be there thanks to the appreciation or the surplus the farm will have already generated. It is an alternative to allow producers to have retirement funds instead of relying entirely on the value of the business. This could never become the core asset of a farmers' retirement fund—simply because of where the money comes from.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
I don't want to confuse us here, but I don't think we're talking about helping farmers have a retirement fund. I'm trying to understand how we can help the sustainability of beginning farmers and getting them into farming.
One of the things we talked about in some areas is an interesting one, and it was in terms of developing partnerships. Sometimes they are with the family. We have had a couple of examples of where there was a young person who, outside of their family, wanted to get into farming, so they developed a partnership. Some of those partnerships may be through shares where they were able to start to acquire some shares as they continued to work. Sometimes their working would help offset the price of the shares and then they would be able to make some transfers into the farm.
Do you know of any of that actually happening that way in Quebec?
Then I have a question for the supply management, because you have some very interesting comments that I want to support.
