In terms of farmland prices, some of them have been escalating very rapidly. You can hear of prices in some regions exceeding $2,500 per acre, which is up sharply. I heard of one, which I didn't personally go out and validate, where an offer was given of $3,000 an acre for good land near Balcarres, north of Regina, but I heard the seller declined. In terms of how much they currently own—the foreign investors—as you say, it's really hard to know. There have been some questions put to the group that used to be called the Farm Ownership Board. There was legislation in Saskatchewan that used to limit how much could be there. But it's really hard to trace the flows of money.
The other thing is this Agcapita, which I talked about. I haven't had much time to investigate it, but they have had a couple of funds; they've been buying land, and they've closed them as they've purchased enough land. I think you all know the implications. If someone can buy it out of an RRSP and I have to buy it out of money that I've paid taxes on...I'm a non-competitor. It's going to change the profile as more of them get set up.
I have children, and of course I asked, should we put some of our money into an RRSP and use that to buy some land? We couldn't figure out a way to do it, because of the requirements of being large and being traded on exchanges and other things, which seems to be the rule.
I raise it because I have a concern. I hear concerns from neighbours about how land is managed or treated. I think there's a long history about outside land ownership, and in terms of whether you're talking Ireland and potato famines or other things, they're not always great stories. I think it's something that this committee should be addressing, and that's the reason I raised it. It's the talk out there in the country.