Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-63 and, more specifically, the provisions to amend the Income Tax Act in relation to agricultural and fisheries co-operatives. As the legislation indicates, the changes are to ensure that qualifying farmers and fishers selling to agricultural and fisheries co-operatives are eligible for the small business deduction.
Briefly, Gay Lea Foods is the largest dairy co-operative in Ontario. We have recently expanded our membership to eligible dairy farmers within Manitoba, and we are the first North American dairy co-operative to include both licensed dairy cow and dairy goat members. At our nine facilities across Ontario, our employees produce a wide range of dairy products, from the consumer favourite, Spreadables Butter, to North America's first smooth cottage cheese, and more recently, Nothing But Cheese, an innovative snack product made with 100% cheese. We also recently added a cheese-making facility in Alberta to our growing business.
With members on more than 1,300 dairy farms and more than 4,000 members overall, Gay Lea Foods is as renowned for its co-operative-inspired values as it is for being a preferred supplier of award-winning dairy products and high-quality dairy components.
Back in the spring, we became aware that certain changes in the 2016 federal budget would have an unintentional but significant impact on co-operative member-owners. A number of co-operatives, financial and agriculture groups, and experts communicated to Finance Canada about this interpretation and the potential impact on members of co-operatives. We were pleased to receive the proposed changes that Finance Canada published in May of this year, and we acknowledge the efficient time frame in which they provided clarification on this technical matter.
We support the proposed changes in Bill C-63, and are satisfied that they will ensure that recently enacted amendments to the Income Tax Act do not inappropriately deny access to the small business deduction for a farmer selling farm products to an agricultural co-operative.
Co-operatives play an understated but vital role in enhancing Canada's economic and social prosperity, and they support our local communities.
I am tremendously proud that many of the values that define co-operatives are the same ones we celebrate as Canadians. As a proudly Canadian co-operative, Gay Lea Foods invests in our employees and members with training and leadership opportunities. We support the local communities where our employees and members live, work, and raise their families, by donating product, sponsoring local activities, and providing stable, long-term, skilled employment. I am humbled that we are able to do all these activities while growing a 100% Canadian-owned co-operative.
We are empowered by our member-owners who see great value in supporting an innovative, dynamic, and profitable co-operative. With that in mind, as government develops policies and programs to grow the Canadian economy, we encourage you to consider the broader spinoffs and benefits for Canadians that come from supporting Canadian co-operatives like Gay Lea Foods.
Thank you very much.