Mr. Speaker, first, I want to congratulate the hon. member for Châteauguay—Saint-Constant on her motion. I hope it will be adopted.
I would like to discuss the issue of the next generation of farmers. This is a major problem that requires some serious thinking and some solutions.
People in the farming business are getting older. Today, for one young producer, there are two who are aged 55 or more. Nevertheless, there is a keen interest among young people to take over their parents' farms. They would like to become farmers. However that interest dwindles when they find out about prices for farm property. Theirs is a particular situation in that they must buy land, buildings, quotas and various pieces of equipment. They must also think about improvements, and about the fact that they have to invest $6 to generate a profit of $1.
These young people have the skills, but they do not have the money to buy at a high price, and their parents cannot give them their property, because they must continue to make a living. In order to have an integrated approach, the state has to provide more support to these young people, so that the number of family farms can be maintained.
In 2004, the UPA, the union of agricultural producers in Quebec, published a report on young people in agriculture. This document includes 16 recommendations, including: launching an awareness campaign on the importance of female aspiring farmers; establishing tax leverages to promote financial security for retired producers; maintaining and developing a network of advisors on how to transfer and start a farm; implementing various measures to help train young people; improving financial assistance; and reviewing the quota transfer mechanisms to limit price increases.
Quebec has set up a system of bonuses to encourage young people to take over farm operations and become producers. Start up costs are very high for someone who wants to buy a business. This small amount of $20,000 or $40,000 that can be obtained from the Quebec government may make a big difference between deciding to make the sacrifices and efforts required to take over the business, or giving up because of insufficient funds to buy the operation.
It is not very complicated, but there must be a political will on the part of the various levels of government. That is essential. The federal government must set up a program, otherwise it will be the end of family farms for Canadian and Quebec producers.
The danger is close at hand, because the small and medium sized businesses with no one to take them over will close down. It is predicted that, by 2025, the number of farmers is liable to drop considerably. The big agribusinesses will get bigger, and others will sell off by dismantling their holding, because it is more tempting to accept a big offer than to sell to one's children. Some will prefer selling at a lower price, but may have a hard time in their retirement or may even be destitute. Fewer and fewer people are making this choice. If things continue this way, there will no longer be family farms, because the big businesses that buy them out will specialize.
Because of the mad cow crisis and the low prices in effect since 2001, a number of farms that are up for sale are not finding any takers. The people who are still there have enough on their plates already, and the people who want to buy have to try to bring the price down. Young people who want to take over from parents who have had enough do not have the money to do so, because agricultural products are not selling at a price that compensates for the cost of production.
So who will be taking over our family farms? The Mexicans? The Americans? How can we restore status to this profession, when the situation is so complicated and the government does not provide as much support to agriculture as other countries do? This is an obstacle for our farmers.
A low birth rate, low farm revenues, the need for an extremely high initial investment and an uncertain future mean that the succession problem is always one of the most important issues. This is the case in agriculture. Furthermore, environmental conditions, people's unhappiness with farm odours, and consumers who do not want to pay higher prices are among the most important reasons young people give for refusing to take over the family farm. The prices of agricultural products are lower than they were 20 years ago, but the cost of gas, electricity and other things is significantly higher.
Farmers are sending out an S.O.S. asking the government to help transfer farms to the next generation, our farmers of tomorrow.
Small farms need tax advantages in order to survive the battles caused by free trade and competition invading our markets, often due to the lower labour costs, warmer climates and less rigorous environments elsewhere.
We need all our farms. When we look at where farm families live, we see well kept buildings. When farms merge, are sold or dismantled, these buildings quickly fall into ruin.
Nowadays, thanks to the work done by farmers, Canada's capital assets may appear to be proof that we are rich. Nowadays, the next generation does not have the means, as they start out, to pay the asking price.
“We need to find the means to help the next generation take over, otherwise we will lose what we have and become poor and maybe suffer as much as the Norbourg investors”.
“We need a program to ensure that the government will be a major ally for the next generation. Our young people need to know that we have faith in the next generation responsible for feeding our planet, as our ancestors showed us”.
This comes from a brief written by a farmer and her husband whose four children had left the land because of the very high costs involved.