Guelph, Ont. – The Beef Farmers of Ontario (BFO) commends the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry on the completion of the report titled, A Growing Concern: How to Keep Farmland in the Hands of Canadian Farmers released publicly earlier this week. BFO is pleased by the report’s recognition of the need to create and maintain affordable pathways to ownership of, and access to, productive agricultural lands in effort to curb the growing threat that rising farmland prices are having on the long-term viability and sustainability of family farms in Canada.
The report’s recommendations provide an excellent starting point for policymakers, industry, and private sector partners to engage in discussions around potential solutions to ensure new, young and expanding farmers have the opportunity to acquire and maintain the land required to make a living.
BFO is particularly supportive of the report’s recommendation to explore the possibility of increasing the amount of the lifetime capital gains exemption for qualified farm property to make it easier for new farmers to acquire farmland. The recommendation encouraging provincial governments to do more to protect and promote the use of land for agricultural purposes is also strongly supported by BFO.
“Pasture and forage land managed by beef farmers plays an important role in soil health, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, nutrient run-off management, erosion control, and pollinator and wildlife habitat, while allowing us to make a living producing some of the best beef in the world,” says Joe Hill, BFO President. “We are really encouraged that the Senate report highlights the need for governments to do more to protect and promote the use of land for agricultural activities.”
Farmland prices in Ontario are some of the highest in the country, with commercial development paving over one million acres of farmland every decade in Southern Ontario. Efforts to increase the protection of and access to agricultural lands is not only warranted from an economic perspective, but desperately needed to ensure Canada’s food security interests are protected for the next generation of Canadians.
Source : Beef Farmers of Ontario