The Trudeau government was elected on a promise to return farm operations to prisons, after they were closed under the Harper government in favour of what was called more useful skills.

That resulted in an outcry especially in the Kingston area where there are multiple institutions to house criminals.

The original proposal from the government was to milk goats, but Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, announced at the Joyceville prison that the program would include dairy cattle along with goats. The original prison farms involved milking cows and some of the high-classification herd was purchased by area farmers who have maintained the genetics of the original prison farm that was closed in 2010.

“I am very pleased to learn that the government has approved the combination of dairy cows and dairy goats at our Kingston area prison farms,” said Dianne Dowling, a local community member and co-chair of the farm advisory panel. “This announcement comes after years of dedication by hundreds of citizens to the cause of restoring the prison farms with a diverse program of crops and livestock.”

An advisory panel made up of seven volunteers has provided non-binding advice to Correctional Services Canada to help it better understand the farm industry, explore new business ideas and promote partnerships to provide employment opportunities for released offenders.

The return of the prison farms will be phased as the government has committed $4.3 million over the next five years to reopen farm operations.

The Kingston area will be the model, with prison farms at Joyceville and Collins Bay institutions.

“Consultations with community members, businesses and stakeholders have demonstrated strong support for the return of CSC farms in Kingston, and the return of dairy cows is an integral part of the project,” said Holland. “The prison farms are a valuable program that promotes rehabilitation, empathy and skills training, which reduces reoffending and helps make our communities safer.”

Workers at the institutions will be involved in building the facilities needed for the animals as well as rehabilitating farmland for crops.

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Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s 2018 budget proposes a couple of new limits on Canadian-controlled private corporations’ (CCPC) ability to benefit from a lower tax rate on passive investment income.

Morneau last July had proposed that savings — if held as passive investments within CCPCs — would be “taxed in a manner that is equivalent to savings held directly by individuals.”

Farm groups such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) objected at the time, describing passive investments as “vital” to farmers in managing year-over-year risks due to weather or market volatility.

Due to such concerns raised during public consultations last summer, Morneau stepped back from that proposal last fall.

As Tuesday’s budget noted, tax experts in last year’s consultations suggested the main reason for the use of private corporations as a tax planning tool was “the significant difference between personal tax rates and the low small business tax rate.”

Thus the new budget proposes that if a corporation earns over $50,000 of passive investment income in a given year, the amount of income eligible for the small business tax rate will be “gradually reduced.”

The small business deduction limit would be reduced by $5 for every $1 of investment income above the $50,000 threshold, cutting the business limit to zero at $150,000 of investment income.

The budget’s proposal marks “an important departure” from last July’s proposal, the government said, in that the budget plan doesn’t directly affect taxes on passive investment income. Also, no existing savings will face any additional tax on withdrawal.

Tuesday’s budget also proposes that CCPCs will no longer be able to get refunds of taxes paid on investment income while distributing dividends from income taxed at the general corporate rate. Refunds will continue to be available when investment income is paid out.

Until now, any taxable dividends a private corporation pays out could trigger a refund of taxes paid on investment income, regardless of where the dividend came from.

Both measures, the government said, will apply in taxation years that begin after 2018. The two measures, along with new rules on income sprinkling, are expected to raise $925 million per year for the government by 2022-23.

Tuesday’s budget documents emphasized that for a farm operating as a CCPC, investment income from the AgriInvest program — which includes matching government contributions — is not considered passive income and won’t be affected by the new rules.

The budget proposals on passive investments are targeted, the government said, to affect less than three per cent of CCPCs, or about 50,000 private corporations.

CFA president Ron Bonnett, in a separate release Tuesday, said the farm organization “is pleased that changes regarding passive investment incomes have been further clarified. However, more time is needed to review the legislation with more scrutiny.”

Budget expenses

The budget doesn’t include any specific additional measures for the federal agriculture department, holding its program expenses at $2.4 billion for 2018.

Noting “few mentions” of agriculture in Morneau’s budget speech and documents, Bonnett said Tuesday the CFA is “disappointed that the government hasn’t directly followed up on the vision from last year’s budget, which set ambitious targets to grow the industry for the benefit of all Canadians.”

However, Bonnett said, the budget’s “continued focus on research and innovation” is positive.

On the research front, the budget announced phase one of “an ambitious plan to renew federal laboratories,” offering up $2.8 billion over five years, starting in 2018–19, for constriction of “multi‐purpose, collaborative, federal science and technology facilities.”

Specifically, the government said, “rather than work in silos, this new approach to federal science and discovery will look to bring together federal scientists and science facilities across government including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the National Research Council and others.”

The budget also sets aside $100 million over five years for the Strategic Innovation Fund with a “particular focus on supporting projects that relate to (low Earth orbit, or LEO) satellites and next-generation rural broadband.”

LEO satellites, the government said, “can receive and transmit data with significantly improved response times” and help provide internet services across “challenging landscapes” at lower costs than fibre-optic lines.

Tuesday’s budget also commits $4.3 million over five years, starting in 2018–19, to “support the reopening” of penitentiary farms at the Joyceville and Collins Bay Institutions at Kingston, Ont.

The farms are to be run by Corcan, a rehabilitation programming agency of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).

The government in mid-2016 announced a feasibility study on reopening the Kingston farms, which the previous Conservative government had wound down in 2009. An advisory panel, including four eastern Ontario farmers, was set up last spring to further explore the idea of reopening farms at the sites.

The budget on Tuesday also pledged $194.1 million over five years toward a “robust compliance regime” to protect and enforce rights for temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada, including unannounced inspections and “ongoing collection of labour market information related to open work permits.”

The budget further proposes $3.4 million over two years for a pilot program developing a “network of support organizations” for TFWs dealing with “potential abuse by their employers.” — AGCanada.com Network

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The $225 million plant is being built at Kingston by Canada Royal Milk ULC, a subsidiary of Chinese company Feihe International. The Ontario government has committed up to $24 million to the project, which will export baby formula to China.

The plant is slated to open in 2020 and will need what the province calls “significant” volumes of cows’ and goats’ milk.

The funds will come from the food and beverage investment arm of the province’s Jobs and Prosperity Fund.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne met with Feihe International on Saturday during her trade trip to Beijing.

“We’re excited to welcome Feihe International to Ontario. In addition to bringing good jobs to the Kingston community, this project will also open up new opportunities for our dairy and goat producers to continue to grow and thrive,” said Jeff Leal, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs.

Youbin Leng, chairman of Feihe International, said Ontario is at a similar latitude to its Chinese operations, an area he calls the “World’s Golden Milk Belt” at 47 degrees north.

The company is the largest of China’s infant formula processors.

There was some concern at last week’s Ontario Federation of Agriculture annual meeting where a resolution was presented that called on the province to create an office in eastern Ontario to work with farmers to create a supply chain.

The resolution from Frontenac County said Ontario farmers need to be able to compete with the provincial goat association in Quebec, which the resolution said has already been working with Quebec’s agriculture ministry and Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) to create a goat milk supply chain to supply the Kingston plant.

Ontario goat farmers have twice rejected the creation of a levy-funded provincial goat milk producer organization.

— Reporting for AGCanada.com by John Greig.

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Correctional Service Canada (CSC) on Thursday announced the panel members, who are expected to hold their first meeting next month and to “engage with community stakeholders” on the farms’ possible reopening.

The panel is also tasked with helping CSC’s rehabilitation program Corcan to “better understand farm industry operations, explore new business ideas, and promote partnerships to provide employment opportunities for released offenders.”

Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, in a release Thursday, said the new panel is meant to “help us determine the best way ahead for re-establishing penitentiary farms.”

The new panel’s farmer members include Dianne Dowling, who operates an organic dairy and beef farm near Kingston; Jeff Peters, a beef producer at Inverary; Tony Straathof, a mixed farmer in the Whitewater region; and Bruce Vandenberg, a goat and sheep dairy producer and cheese plant operator at Lindsay.

The panel’s other members include Bridget Doherty, of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent De Paul; Catherine Latimer, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada; and Alec Ross, a local communications consultant, school board trustee and board vice-president for KEYS Job Centre.

CSC last June launched a feasibility study, plus consultations last July and August, to review the previous Conservative federal government’s decision to wind down Corcan’s agribusiness operations.

Results from the consultations, published in November, “will continue to influence CSC’s future decisions related to employment and employability programs offered at institutions,” the department said Thursday.

Participants in the consultations “were asked to provide their input into the possibility of renewing penitentiary farms at Collins Bay and Joyceville institutions” in Kingston.

Collins Bay, which has maximum, medium and minimum security facilities, and Joyceville, a medium/minimum security operation, have combined capacity for over 1,400 male inmates.

“The decision on the future of penitentiary farms is an important one, and (the new panel members’) feedback will be critical in guiding us on how to move forward,” CSC commissioner Don Head said in the same release.

Goodale said Thursday he’s “committed to implementing evidence-based practices and policies that promote public safety and the safe reintegration of offenders.”

CSC had wound down its six prison farms in 2009 under the Tories’ “strategic review” process, in which the service was required to review programs “to ensure that they continued to operate in an effective and efficient manner.”

Groups opposing the end of the prison farm programs included the National Farmers Union (NFU), which at the time said the closures ignored the value of “a restorative approach to justice and a sustainable, local approach to the future of farming and food.”

Dowling, Peters and Straathof all serve in regional executive and/or board positions with NFU-Ontario.

Corcan’s farms had included mixed ag operations at Rockwood (Stony Mountain, Man.), Riverbend (Prince Albert, Sask.), Pittsburgh (Kingston) and Westmorland (Dorchester, N.B.). Bowden, at Innisfail, Alta. ran a mixed farm and composting operation, while Frontenac, also at Kingston, included dairy and poultry operations. — AGCanada.com Network

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Following up on a Liberal campaign pledge, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) announced plans Thursday for a feasibility study including both in-person and online consultations with stakeholders and the public.

Specifically, CSC said its study will “assess the effectiveness and viability of re-establishing agriculture and agri-food employment initiatives for offenders” at two institutions at Kingston, Ont.

The study will look at farm operations for Collins Bay, which has maximum, medium and minimum security facilities, and for Joyceville, a medium/minimum security operation. The two Kingston facilities, both for male offenders, have capacity for over 1,400 inmates in total.

“Our government understands that an effective criminal justice system is built on evidence-based policies that promote public safety and the reintegration of offenders,” federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a release.

“That’s why we will be reviewing the cost and effectiveness of reinstating the prison farm program at Collins bay and Joyceville Institutions, and encouraging citizens, business leaders and other interested stakeholders to share their visions for what the program could look like.”

Both Collins Bay and Joyceville saw expansions built under the then-Conservative government’s long-term plan to add over 2,700 beds at men’s and women’s penitentiaries across the country.

CSC said Thursday its online forum will be open from now until Aug. 2, allowing “stakeholders from government, business, and the community… to share their opinions.”

The service also plans to hold a town hall meeting in Kingston at an as-yet unspecified date for local residents, business leaders and other stakeholders to “voice their perspectives.”

The CSC wound down its six prison farms in 2009 under the former Conservative government’s “strategic review” process, in which the service was required to review programs “to ensure that they continued to operate in an effective and efficient manner.”

Canadian penitentiaries have operated prison farms as far back as the mid-19th century. Before their closures, the prison farms had operated through CSC’s Corcan agency, which oversees vocational training opportunities for offenders.

Corcan’s farms had included mixed ag operations at Rockwood (Stony Mountain, Man.), Riverbend (Prince Albert, Sask.), Pittsburgh (Kingston, Ont.) and Westmorland (Dorchester, N.B.). Bowden, at Innisfail, Alta. ran a mixed farm and composting operation, while Frontenac, also at Kingston, included dairy and poultry operations.

A 1995 CSC study previously suggested Corcan participants were “less likely to return to custody upon release, compared to the national average.”

CSC, in its new online survey, noted it “continues to offer other agriculture and horticulture initiatives including community gardens, institutional gardens, and greenhouses that produce food for internal use, as well as for donation to food banks and other community food programs.”

However, CSC said, “these activities are not typically part of employment training programs offered at the institutions.”

The Liberals, in response to a pre-election questionnaire last October from the John Howard Society of Canada, said prison farms “taught practical skills and helped prisoners prepare for re-integration into Canadian society.”

The party, in its response, said it believes “proper rehabilitation is needed to promote public safety and reduce repeat offending. The prisons (sic) farms delivered on both counts and should be re-opened.”

Groups opposing the end of the prison farm programs included the National Farmers Union (NFU), which at the time said the closures ignored the value of “a restorative approach to justice and a sustainable, local approach to the future of farming and food.” — AGCanada.com Network

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