Thank you to the committee for inviting us to speak today. You have a copy of my presentation, and I'm going to go through it quite quickly, because I'm sure you've been talked to by Dairy Farmers of Canada before. I represent the Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick. I'm the chairman. I also have a small dairy farm. My son and daughter work with me.
We have about 200 dairy farmers in New Brunswick. In New Brunswick dairy runs neck and neck with potatoes for the largest revenue producer in the province. We're one of seven provinces in the country in which dairy has the largest revenues among agricultural producers. We're showing phenomenal growth in Canada in the dairy industry now. That's amazing because people think of us as supply-management systems that are closed with no growth, but the growth in the domestic market has been huge in the last few years. There has been a big change in the mindset of doctors and the heart foundation who no longer think that butter will kill you, and butter growth has just been crazy.
I don't have to tell you I'm a converted person, but butter makes everything taste better. Now, that growth is great but it also brings with it some issues. One is the fact that our processing plants are getting close to capacity; they're getting old. We need a lot of infrastructure upgrades, and the technology around the world is also changing. We have an issue with diafiltered milk being imported. It's imported because the cheese processors find it an easier product in their cheese, and I don't blame them, but we need to get that technology into the new plants and allow for more capacity in this country. There was a promise of processing money for infrastructure upgrades in the CETA and TPP deals. That's been discussed with the new government, but there's been no decision yet. The CETA and TPP deals are going to take approximately 6% of our market away. That's money we're going to lose forever, and that's certainly going to create a hard time for us. There was a $4.3 billion income compensation package available that hasn't been discussed or agreed to yet either.
Now, we know there are issues with CETA and TPP. When they'll be ratified and put into place, we have no idea, but they've all been signed. They're going to be put in place sooner or later. We hope that compensation package comes through, because we can use it on the farms to be more innovative and to upgrade our technology to help become more efficient and hopefully to create more growth and more jobs.
I'm just saying this off the cuff now. As a small-business person and someone who is probably at the tail end of the baby boomers, I'd like to address your other questions about how we could help the whole society do a better job for the country. I'm a firm believer that if people are allowed to make a decent living, they'll spend money and help create growth in any part of the country. So what's the cost of living? I have no idea; it's different from province to province, but let's say it's $25,000 a year. Why would you tax anybody who makes $25,000 a year? So make your basic personal exemption $25,000. The person with an income of $25,000 is going to spend all that money just to live, which in turn creates growth in dollar rollover.
The other thing is that all of us baby boomers are getting to an age at which we are going to require more health care. Why not increase the capital gains tax exemption so all of us baby boomers can save enough money to look after ourselves? At our age we're going to need a lot of health care, but if we have that disposable income, we're not going to be a burden on society or the rest of the taxpayers since we'll be able to cover our own costs. If we get that magic number for the clawback on Canada Pension and old age security, then that's great; that's money we get back and we can spend on the rest of society.
These are just a couple of thoughts from my brain.
Thank you very much.