Thank you very much. It's always a pleasure to speak with you, Tim, and I look forward to having some more chats on the deck or at the kitchen table.
I probably don't need to remind all of you just how precious class 1 and 2 farmland is in our country. Less than half of a per cent of our total land mass fits into that category, and more than 50% of it is in southern Ontario. It's mostly very close to urban centres. Those urban centres are the source of pressure on that very farmland that feeds us because of the expansion of the urban centres and sprawl.
All levels of government need to work together to ensure that the protections that exist are not eroded and in fact are strengthened. Farmland needs to be seen as a non-renewable resource, because it is. If we allow the existing dynamic to continue, we will lose the capacity to feed ourselves eventually and in the not too distant future.
Farming should be the number one highest priority for class 1 and 2 farmland use, for every piece of it across this country. By enshrining protections that ensure it is kept, we will enable ourselves to continue to feed ourselves into the next generation.
It's been very difficult for individual farmers to prevent the loss of farmland, because we're under pressure to sell. For the next generation to take over, it is very difficult. We don't have a way to save for retirement beyond the increased value of our farmland that we have to then sell. Those falling returns for what we grow are creating the structural deficit I mentioned. Input companies and landlords are taking too much and buyers are paying too little, with the difference being taken out of our land, out of the labour and out of our income.
Allowing it to continue is unsustainable. We need to look to the future.