Farm leaders gave last week’s federal budget at least a passing grade.
They praised investments in Genome Canada research, a multibillion-dollar spending program on municipal infrastructure and several tax break improvements.
Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett said the budget included “several important contributions essential to the growth of the sector.”
He cited the budget’s commitment to $3 billion in research and innovation announced earlier in the September Growing Forward Agreement in Whitehorse as well as an increased one-time tax break from capital gains tax for farmers selling their farms.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“I would say this gets a very decent rating for agriculture,” Bonnett said.
“It is a very positive outcome for the sector.”
However, he criticized the government’s decision to only double to $17,500 the ability of part-time farmers to claim losses against off-farm income. The CFA says the ability to offset losses should be at least set at the $40,000 level.
Grain Growers of Canada pronounced itself “neutral.” It was generally favourable to the budget but had concerns about uncertain research commitments,
GGC has been trying to convince the government to increase public funding for basic agricultural research and investment in research infrastructure.
“We are reassured to see this year’s federal budget does not include any further erosion to agricultural infrastructure, but we will have to wait and see more details about how previous budget cuts are put into practice before we weigh in one way or the other,” president Stephen Vandervalk said in a GGC statement.
He said Grain Growers will continue to support public-private partnership research projects and the government’s new model of “cluster funding” for short-term research results, but basic research funding also is needed.
“Grain Growers continues to stress the importance of innovation and agriculture research to the federal government,” he said.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association praised the government for being in line with CCA goals through its emphasis on “innovation, competitiveness, market development, regulatory co-operation and addressing labour shortages.”
Even Liberal agriculture critic Frank Valeriote found some parts of the budget helpful but complained that there was not enough emphasis on their application to agriculture.
He noted the promise of funding for job skills training.
“It is time we started promoting a career in agriculture,” he said.
“It’s time we moved more vigorously to introduce it to youth in colleges or even high school. The industry needs more skilled workers.”
