The petition calls for donations of land to Community Land Trusts to be capital gains exempt
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A national ag organization is asking Canadian farmers to add their names to a petition related to farmland.
Chris O’Leary, a member of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, started the petition on Oct. 31, 2022, asking the federal government to change tax law to incentivize land donations to land trusts.
His petition asks for “donations of land to Community Land Trusts to be capital gains exempt in addition to a tax credit or deduction which can be provided in exchange for the land, based on fair market value.”
Access to farmland in Canada can be a challenge for farmers trying to gain a footing in the industry.
Farmland in Southern Ontario, for example, averaged about $17,000 per acre in 2021, Farm Credit Canada’s Farmland Values Report says.
And when farmland is left to be bought, sold or rented by the highest bidder, it creates monopolies and puts others at a disadvantage.
That’s why farmers should lend their support to this petition, said Stewart Wells, 2nd vice president of the National Farmers Union.
“There’s a move for larger operations to continue to collect that land, and those companies are able to get credit and investors that can help them purchase that property and takes that land out of the realm of possibility for other Canadians to compete in that scenario,” he told Farms.com. “And that’s happening across the country.”
Wells is the third generation to farm on his grandparents’ homestead near Swift Current,” Sask. There, he grows 3,500 acres of organic grain, alfalfa and pulse crops. And he rents 1,200 acres of pasture to neighbours.
Farming in Canada used to be a right, he said, but that’s no longer the case.
“It’s a privilege now because when you go to the bank, if you don’t have the assets, the lending institutions aren’t going to talk to you,” he said. “Everything is more expensive and now if you don’t have close to millions of dollars in assets, lending institutions won’t give you the time.”
Supporting community land trusts helps ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to access the land, he added.
The deadline to sign the petition in Feb. 28.
Canadians need to support it to get it traction and to get the attention of politicians, Wells said.
“All Canadians, not just farmers, should put their signature on this petition so we can get it on the desk of the politicians,” he said.
The petition currently has 644 signatures.
Of that number, 51 per cent, or 334 signatures, are from B.C. The next highest is Ontario with 204 signatures.