moved for leave to introduce Bill C-479, An Act to amend the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Act (individuals or entities engaged in farming operations).
Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure for me to introduce this private member's bill, entitled An Act to amend the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Act. My own nickname for it is the farm program eligibility act.
The purpose of this bill is to ensure that actual farmers are the primary targets and beneficiaries of federally funded farm programs. The bill would also ensure that farm program benefits cannot be paid out by the federal government to large publicly traded and international companies, slaughter plants or grain trading companies that might happen to also own some agricultural production units.
Another important part of this bill is that it will ensure that beginning farmers will be eligible for programs. It specifies a very low gross receipts threshold for those young farmers. With great pleasure, I table this.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)