I'd like to thank the witnesses for their presentations and the exchanges this morning. I want to concentrate on young farmers.
A few months ago, we had a great private member's bill that was put forward in the House by my colleague from Rimouski. It built on previous bills in the House of Commons to help facilitate the transfer of family farms. There was support from coast to coast to coast. So many groups came out to support this bill, including municipalities, farmers, and business owners. It would have facilitated the transfer of a fishing or farm business to somebody in the family. Right now, if you want to sell, it is sometimes more profitable to sell your business to somebody on the outside, a stranger, than it is to sell to your children. Sadly, the bill didn't even get to committee for further study, which was really disappointing.
I was wondering if we could have comments on the importance of making changes to the Income Tax Act to facilitate the transfer of farms. In one of the last meetings we had, the importance was raised of making that bill better, building on it, including selling it to not just your daughter or your son but to other family members.
Could I get comments on the importance of legislation changes that could be made here at the federal government to facilitate the transfer?