Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to depart from the normal process for a bit.
Certainly, Mr. Nelson, if you have anything else to add and, Mr. Mount, if you want to supply any other comments in response to this as well, please do so.
I want to start with some questions that came out of the first panel.
My personal experience is that my wife and I got married in 1985 and purchased a farm. We were lucky. It was backstopped by my father and mother for the guarantee, but we purchased a large farm at the time. It was $360,000 of debt. Therefore, we had $360,000 of assets.
I think, when the Canadian public watches this, they all of a sudden think we're rich. Well, no, I had $360,000 of assets offset by $360,000 of debt. That's how I began as a third-generation farmer.
When we hear about the numbers today, imagine $360,000 from 1985. In today's dollars, that's maybe $1.6 million to $1.8 million. I wasn't automatically rich. I just had that much in assets and that much debt to begin a business career. I think that, at times, Canadians don't fully appreciate the business of agriculture, which is capital intensive, and how to begin that process.
I've been through succession now twice—once on the way in and once on the way out. I see from the Library of Parliament, which always does such a good job of providing background information, that only 12% of farmers have succession plans in place. Any policy that this committee would recommend, I think, would be great in spurring more farmers to have a succession plan.
This actually triggers a question, Mr. Nelson.
Did you have anything written down that you developed, together with your wife or your family, as far as where you wanted to go?