Making Informed Decisions

As a farmer my principle interest in the upcoming election is around agriculture policies. I want to know how each of the parties answer my questions so I did some research. It was hard because, although agriculture contributes over $50 billion to Canada's GDP and provides one of the safest food supplies in the world, the political parties don't have a lot to say about agriculture. At time of research the Liberal party had yet to publish their platform so I used their current policies. My research questions centred around: Business Risk Management (AgInvest & AgStability), taxation, trade, carbon pricing, and use of canola as a Biofuel in the new Clean Standards Act. Here is what I found. (I apologize for the format. Wix does not work easily with Google Drive!)

So, as you can see there are some gaps. I also have some questions.

For the NDP party:

What are you going to do about AgInvest or AgStability insurance programs for farmers?

What do you mean by support "sustainable" ag to reduce GHG emissions? Any farm that is still producing crops is sustainable.

What exactly will you do to help farmers access low carbon tools? For example we just bought a drill with sectional control to reduce fertilizer and pesticide over-application. Will you give us grants to help pay for that low carbon tool?

What does connecting Canadians to farmers through local food hubs look like? What are local food hubs? Farmer's markets? We do not take 25000 bushels of wheat to a farmer's market. Come to rural Alberta and learn about grain farms.

What does traceability look like? According to NAFTA beef cannot be labelled whether it is from US or Canada. Are you going to disregard NAFTA?

For the Maverick party:

If you are a western party, where are your agriculture policies?

For the Conservative Party:

I appreciate that you recognize that crop land is a carbon sink and will create off-set credits. I do wonder why you have chosen B.C's policy of a 20% reduction for transport fuels.

For the Liberal Party:

Where's your platform?

Do you realize how $170/tonne carbon pricing will cause food prices to soar?

Liberal MP Kevin Lameroux stated while discussing Bill C-208, "Bill C-208 proposes amendments that could easily be misused by corporations, which could look for tax planning opportunities." Before Bill C-208, this is what would happen if a farmer sold his farm to his son.If the father were to sell his farm to a stranger, he could use his capital gains exemption on the sale, resulting in an effective tax rate of 13.39%. However, if the farmer sold his farm to his son, that sale would be recorded as a dividend rather than a capital gain, and the farmer would pay 47.4% in tax. That is a huge difference, and I think we can all agree that it is completely unfair.

So many questions that need to be answered and I want concrete answers not generalized statements. Before you go to the polls, see what the party has to offer your needs.