Ottawa, ON – The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) was disappointed to see a lack of investment in Canadian agriculture in the 2024 budget. In light of sustained high-interest rates, a price on carbon for essential farming activities, for which farmers have no viable alternatives, and an increased risk of extreme weather events that are testing the limits and effectiveness of Canada’s suite of risk management programs, yesterday’s Federal Budget falls short for Canadian farmers.
“While we understand there are competing priorities for government funds, with erratic weather and high prices tremendously increasing the risk profile of Canadian agriculture, the government can ill-afford to ignore food production and Canadian farmers,” said Keith Currie, CFA President.
While the budget did have some positive investments in the sector, such as the re-commitment to launch of consultations on interoperability, carbon rebates for small businesses and previously announced funding for temporary improvements to the Advanced Payments Program, there was no mention of pivotal issues for the sector such as investments in environmental programming, chronic labour issues in food production or improvements to transportation and trade infrastructure.
At the same time, CFA was pleased to see the Government of Canada respond to CFA’s recommendation to increase to the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, a critical tool in supporting intergenerational farm transfers. However, the increase to the inclusion rate holds the potential to make these same transfers more challenging given the amount of capital required to remain competitive in modern agriculture. CFA will be assessing the full implications of these changes for intergenerational farm transfers in the coming days.
“If Canadian agriculture is to seize its full economic and climate potential, we cannot keep missing opportunities while our international competitors continue to invest in their agriculture industries,” Currie added.
CFA will be working closely with the Government of Canada to ensure that the priorities of farmers are recognized and that essential services such as Canadian agriculture are valued and protected.
Source : CFA-FCA