—because I exceed the age expectation. But perhaps I have some interest in this because I have four sons.
One is on the farm right now, basically because he's between work, but my four sons do not want to do what I've done. They do not want to have the life that we've had the last little while, and I do not encourage them to do it.
I do not have a formal presentation for you, because basically I stumble when I try to follow a formal one, and I can roll quite well without it.
I've been farming for over 30 years with my father; we're a planter. The farm has been continuously farmed by my family since 1760. My father is quite thankful that I've taken over, because he feels that he won't be the one to wind up the farm. He thinks it's probably going to happen to me.
We have some major problems in the industry. Basically, the major problem we have, which faces existing farmers and new entrants, is an income problem; it's straight and basic. We have programs that are thrown at us and thrown at us one after the other, but we have an income problem. The income problem is nothing that would encourage our children to carry on the operations.
We've had some rather rough years. Our family farm is mainly in fruit now. We were completely in apples, into wholesale. We were one of the first in this province to lose our market access. Back in 1985 we were hit with the changeover in the Sobeys' Clover Group, into the Mason's and Belliveau scenario, so in 1985 we basically lost our market, which was Clover in Moncton. It basically supplied the French shore of New Brunswick.
We've muddled around a number of things over the years. We now have a marketing company with several other farmers, and the intent of our marketing effort is to basically not compete against each other. We, these individual farms, all pack and ship and store. Basically, when we compete, we compete on price. So we've combined our marketing efforts that way. However, we still are outside the marketing chain, and our problem is still income.
Our expenses are through the roof. We see a number of programs being thrown at us, over and over and over, federally and provincially, but it still doesn't address the income problem. Recently, several years ago, I think in 2005-06, there was an options program given. This was an experimental program. Many of you probably are aware of what it was. Basically, it was an income guarantee that took the taxable income of a farmer from his income tax return and took it to...I believe at that time it was $25,000 for a family and $15,000 for an individual.
I believe what we need to do in this country is get away from program after program after program. We need to get into something that is going to address income. When we address the income situation, we will not only address the existing farmers, but we will address the new farmers. They have to know when they come into a business, regardless of the amount they invest—whether it's a small operation or a large operation, it's all the same—that there is a bottom line there. It's time we take a look and put our farmers in the same light that we have put upon the education profession and the health profession. We do not question—or I guess some of us do, but we realize the importance of it—our health system, and we really don't question the income of doctors. The teaching profession has really been stabilized by the fact that they know what they're getting: they're getting enough money to get teachers in there. Actually, they're getting enough money to get a surplus of teachers. But this is cyclical, and everything will be cyclical.
When we have this, it will encourage the farmers to get into the industry, because they'll know that they will get an income.
We need to have an income tax-based system. We all file income taxes. We know what it is; we know how to do it. We need to get away from ad hoc programs thrown at us over and over and into a system such that we take our farmers to... A start for a lot of us would be taking us up to the poverty line. Whether you want to call it an agricultural subsidy or an anti-poverty subsidy, or whatever, this will allow new entrants to come in.
We need pensions for people like me. My children are between the ages of 34 and 20. I have one in a mine in B.C.; he's an engineering co-op student. I have one in northern Alberta who is driving a truck, who makes more...
Are we getting close to time?
Anyway, we need to do something to address this. We need pensions. We need methods of debt reduction. Debt reduction will not be a problem with an income supplement. We need methods to do this.
And we need to have the smooth transition of existing farms. Family farms are the lifeblood of the country. This is aimed at family farms. We need a transition of family farms from one generation to another. Pensions allow the retiring farmer to go out, but maintain the expertise on the farm. This is very important, that we continue the mentorship.
But we need to have an income for our young farmers and for all farmers. This will address everything, right across the board. It will address the farm debt crisis, because interest payments will be made and debt will be paid.
You have to take the whole thing into consideration and cut out your programs. There's probably enough money in the federal and provincial programs in place now to run a program like this without much cost to the consumer. The only problem is that it is going to definitely be hard on the civil service in the agriculture department when we take out the dozens and dozens of programs that are currently being administered.
Anyway, am I fairly close?