Last week’s federal budget held little direct news for agriculture, considering that Growing Forward 2 has been agreed on and scheduled to start April 1.
Federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz was still able connect the dots between ag and some wider budget initiatives when speaking to reporters March 22 after a speech to the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.
One of the main points was connecting the job skills focus of the budget to agriculture. Asked if farmers can capitalize on the Canada Job Grant program, he said they absolutely could.
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However, it takes an investment of $5,000 per employee (governments will pick up another $10,000). It’s an expensive proposition, but at least there is a vehicle to train more people in crucial aspects of farm management. I wonder how many farmers will try it. The feds get an A for effort, C- if producers don’t like it.
Ritz was also asked if enough money was being invested in research to improve wheat varieties and herbicide resistance. He pointed out that Genome Canada was receiving $165 million over several years, which should benefit livestock and seed genetics.
There will also be $3 billion over five years for innovation, research and market analysis.
As far as it goes, that’s good, but it’s also clear Ottawa is moving away from basic research, as it is from business risk management programs.
“To put it all together (public and private research) and then commercialize it, that’s the role I think federal government has to play,” said Ritz.
“That’s the most at-risk money, is the commercialization of some of those ideas, so we’ll focus on that.”
A for the extra money; F for low basic research funding.
There was also money for infrastructure, although until the dust settles, it’s hard to know how much will flow to rural areas over the next 10 years. Hopefully, that will be an A. Possibly, C.
What the government definitely deserves an A on is increasing the restricted farm loss deduction to $17,500 from $8,750. This is the amount that part-time (read, smaller and beginning) farmers can apply in farm losses to other income.
The feds also increased the lifetime capital gains exemption to $800,000 from $750,000 and indexed the limit to inflation. They get a B for that.
On the face of it, it’s not too bad for a budget delivered in challenging times.
