The 2024 federal budget promises several benefits for Canadian farmers, but the Canadian Federation of Agriculture said it was disappointed to see a lack of investment in Canadian agriculture.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made little mention of agriculture in her speech following the tabling of the budget on Tuesday, though she touched on issues like carbon pricing and green technology.
However, chapter three of the budget, titled “lowering everyday costs” features three sections on reducing costs for farmers.
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The first, “Lower Costs and Fairer Treatment for Farmers” announces that the government will be launching consultations on interoperability in June.
“This is part of broader work the government is undertaking to support the right to repair and interoperability,” the section reads.
The section “Interest Relief for Farmers” proposes $64 million in funding to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada “to support a $250,000 interest-free limit on Advance Payments Program loans for the 2024 program year.”
Finally, “Protecting Farmers from the Costs of Climate Change” reads that “the federal government is committed to working with industry partners, such as the Canadian Cattle Association, to explore avenues to ensure farmers get support quicker and more efficiently in times of need.”
In a release, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) said “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,” Keith Currie, CFA president, said in the release.
The CFA said 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.
“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 said.
In her speech, Freeland highlighted the Canadian carbon rebate, which she said in French will be “delivering hundreds of dollars to Canadians every three months.”
“Eight out of 10 Canadians get back more than they pay in the provinces where the federal price on pollution applies,” she continued.
“We are delivering on our promise to return carbon pricing proceeds to small and medium-sized businesses.”
She said that the Canada Carbon Rebate for small businesses will “soon return over $2.5 billion directly.”
The budget’s primary focus is housing, though it also involves the launch of a new national school food program and the first phase of a national pharmacare plan.
On housing, Freeland said the government would be focusing on “making life cost less” with a plan to build nearly four million news homes by 2031.
“It begins with building more homes at a pace and scale not seen since after the Second World War,” Freeland said.
While the CFA was pleased to see the Government of Canada respond to CFA’s recommendation to increase to the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, which it considers 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.”
The budget also includes an outlined electric vehicle supply chain investment tax credit, which will “introduce a new 10 per cent … tax credit on the cost of buildings used in key segments of the electric vehicle supply chain.”
Freeland said this is “to attract companies investing across the electric vehicle supply chain.”
