The national farm lobby group Grain Growers of Canada is continuing to pressure the federal Conservative government to double agricultural research spending during the next decade.
In a brief it plans to present to the House of Commons finance committee in autumn in anticipation of the next federal budget, GGC argues that research budgets should be doubled over the next decade to get back to inflation-adjusted 1994 levels.
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz has scoffed at proposals to increase general research funding saying he is focusing on targeted investments on specific “cluster” projects, so Grain Growers is offering creative solutions.
It suggests the government set a core funding level for research aimed particularly at research public scientists are doing that private companies are not.
It suggests that royalties from public research variety development that flow back to Agriculture Canada should be dedicated to new variety research but not offset by a reduction in general government funding as now happens.
It also urges the government to make it easier for farm groups to organize research checkoffs.
The brief that will go to MPs on the finance committee will urge them to recommend that investment in new, more efficient farm equipment be encouraged through faster depreciation and that the capital gain lifetime exemption for intergenerational farm transfers be increased from $750,000 to $1 million to help attract the next generation.
The finance committee is expected to begin pre-budget hearings to prepare recommendations for finance minister Jim Flaherty in October. The next budget is expected in February or March.
“These initiatives will create jobs and economic activity as well as strengthen the competitiveness of Canadian farm families,” Grain Growers president Stephen Vandervalk said in the brief. “We urge you to give careful consideration to our thoughts and ideas and we look forward to the opportunity to share these priorities with your committee this fall.”
