Agriculture committee  It's no surprise we supported the bill. We were surprised when it didn't go through. Members from all parties, in one way or the other over periods of time, have tried to approach this issue and recognize that the current Income Tax Act was designed a number of years ago, and it doesn't recognize some of the structural changes there are in businesses moving forward.

Agriculture committee  Just finishing off on that, there are the individual transfers. The other thing we see emerging is investment farmers taking and putting capital in place, buying farmland, and leasing it back. It could be a tool to help young farmers who don't have equity get into it. This issue was raised in the States when we were talking to them down there last week.

Agriculture committee  I know the Canadian Young Farmers' Forum is fairly active in sharing information. The other thing is that you have to realize that the young generation of farmers live with technology. They grew up with the technology. They're exchanging information by computers back and forth.

Agriculture committee  I could take the first crack at it. I think it depends on your commodity, how sensitive you would be. Some of the supply management commodities that have a fixed cash flow, I think, might be able to respond a little more. The other commodities are subject to shocks to the market.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  There are a couple of things. One is that we've been asking budget and finance to take a look at the tax on transition and make sure that the corporate structures are treated in a manner that is equivalent to some of the transfer provisions that were there before. The other thing there's been a bit of discussion about—and it goes to your talk about the retiring farmer—is looking at tax policy to see if there's a way, if that person holds back a substantial mortgage, that possibly some of the income from that mortgage would have a preferred tax status.

Agriculture committee  Thanks to the chairman and committee members for inviting me to present. Before I get into comments, Alfons was sitting on the banker side of the desk in the 1980s. I was on the other side of that desk, and I think it gave me a real understanding of how policy changes could impact the farm.

Agriculture committee  Go for it.

Agriculture committee  I touched on it at the end of my presentation. Last night, there was an event with chicken farmers there, and they said that was a concern, including the time off feed and water. Maybe not so much the time off water, but off feed. That's why I said in the presentation that you have to be species-specific when you're talking about transport times.

Agriculture committee  Just a quick addition.... Last night, the issue was raised by people transporting fowl that the definition of transport time has been changed. The transport time from leaving the farm to getting to the processing facility is now extended to include the time off feed and water. It was explained that in a chicken barn, for instance, it may take four hours to load the truck, so all of a sudden you've lowered the time.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present to the committee. Most of you know who CFA is and who we represent, so I don't think there's a lot of use in going through that explanation, but I would say that CFA represents all agricultural producers, because of the membership we have.

Fisheries committee  Look at the emphasis on conservation and stewardship initiatives.

Fisheries committee  Very quickly, I think that communication has to take place between federal, provincial, and conservation authorities. All three are going to be involved in it. We've gone far enough down that path, and that's what's happening. I think there has to be a better understanding of what the roles and the responsibilities are within the different regulatory agencies.

Fisheries committee  I can take a crack at it first. Some of the issues we face are more about the nature of the application. You mentioned putting HADD back in place. The concern I would have with HADD being back in place across the board, or even if there were exemptions or special policies put in place for municipal works and drainage on farms, is that there's always the problem of interpretation at the local level.

Fisheries committee  We were notified that the changes were taking place and asked whether we had any specific recommendations under the drainage works, but I'm not so much sure it was an invitation as we were knocking on a lot of people's doors at the time, because of the bureaucracy that was involved in getting the approvals through.