Neil Peacock, president of the Peace Country Tender Beef Co-op that is planning a packing plant near Dawson Creek, B.C., was on Parliament Hill last week pleading with MPs for tax changes that will help the venture raise capital.
The plant will help the area deal with the fallout from BSE that “is devastating and draining our town. Co-operatives are the way to resurrect rural communities,” he said.
The financing is difficult, however.
“There’s just no money out there. We need help.”
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Peacock was one of more than a dozen large and small co-op representatives who crowded into a parliamentary committee room Dec. 2 to try to convince the House of Commons finance committee that changes to tax laws are necessary to help agricultural co-ops grow and compete.
They argued that co-ops are the only vehicle available to most farmers to move into the value-added side of the food business.
Pierre Gauvreau, chief executive officer of Coopérative Fédérée de Québec, told MPs the sector needs “a little support” to help raise capital.
He asked that income tax on dividends be deferred as long as the money is reinvested in the co-op and that a registered co-operative investment plan be created that would give a tax break to co-op members and other investors.
“We believe that it would cost the Canadian government somewhere between $18 and $20 million per year,” he said.
“Through its leverage effect and its complementarity with other funding sources, these sums would enable agricultural cooperatives to invest several hundred million dollars in the country’s regional economy.”
Federal finance minister Ralph Goodale has promised the Canadian Co-operative Association by letter that he will consider co-op requests in preparing his February budget.
Co-op leaders urged the finance committee to include the issue in its pre-budget report expected to be published before Dec. 17 when Parliament adjourns for the Christmas break.
But beyond the general message, the group was there to present MPs with a look at the diverse nature of the modern co-op sector, with assets of more than $260 billion and more than 200,000 employees.
