The Canadian Cooperative Association (CCA) is urging members to step up political pressure on government to offer tax break for co-op investors.
In mid-December, the House of Commons finance committee embraced the idea of a Cooperative Investment Plan that would offer a tax credit to members or employees of agricultural and employee-owned co-ops who invest in their co-ops.
MPs on the committee also proposed that the federal government establish a $70-million repayable cooperative loan fund available to co-ops in need of cash.
Both proposals promoted by the CCA and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture should be in the 2010 federal budget, the committee recommended.
They were part of a long pre-budget report that included scores of recommendations for budget action in all areas of the economy after the committee held weeks of hearings across the country.
The CCA jumped on the political endorsement of the CIP as a chance to finally achieve a tax-supported plan to attract investment to the sector. Attracting capital has long been the Achilles heel of the co-op movement.
“CCA would like co-operators across the country to write to their Member of Parliament, as well as Jean-Pierre Blackburn, minister of National Revenue and minister of state (agriculture) and Jim Flaherty, minister of finance, urging the government to include these measures in the next federal budget,” the association said in a bulletin aimed at the millions of cooperative members across Canada.
Quebec has had a similar scheme for years and promoters say that with little tax revenue loss for the government, it has attracted millions of dollars of investment in provincial co-ops.
The finance committee also called on the government to “ensure increased broadband availability in rural and remote regions of Canada.”
But it was vague in its proposals on agriculture.
In public hearings, MPs heard pleas for a wide-range of actions including help for livestock producers, better safety net programs, more investment in agricultural research, federal-provincial companion programs and money to offset the costs of specified risk material removal.
Rather than respond to particular proposals, the committee essentially told Flaherty to ‘do something.’
“The government should examine measures that could be taken in order to encourage young Canadians to enter the agricultural sector, enhance the Growing Forward framework and increase income support for agricultural producers,” said the committee report tabled in Parliament.
MPs said the federal government should pay more attention to the needs of rural Canada.
“The committee believes that increasingly Canada’s rural and remote regions are experiencing challenges that must be addressed if these regions and their residents are going to contribute fully to a prosperous future.”
