Agriculture was mentioned a few times with some small but no doubt welcome amounts for marketing both internationally and within the country.
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The reduction in the small business tax that will be phased in over a number of years may be of assistance to some farm operations and if not it is likely that it will be a boost to many of the businesses that supply goods and services to agriculture, and that should be a good thing.
But as one mayor from a major agricultural area, Chatham-Kent's Randy Hope, told BlackburnNews.com "Agriculture is a major component across Canada and here in Chatham-Kent and yet I don't see a lot being driven towards that."
Well there are a few things but it seems that a lot of agricultural requests are not there.
Some of the things that are:
An increase in the once in a lifetime Capital Gains Exemption from $813,600 to $1-million. As we say a benefit to retiring farmers.
There is also fast depreciation on some types of equipment that may or may not help your business, but some farm support businesses may benefit.
And if you are a member of a co-op you might want to consider taking any patronage, that's dividends to the rest of us, as additional shares in the co-op because you'll deffer the tax on it, until you dispose of the shares.
As always it is up to you possibly in conjunction with your tax professional to varify the result on your situation.
Now a couple of things that are not in the budget that might have been:
Infrastructure. Farm groups have been asking for more repairs on ailing roads and bridges, there was infrastructure mentioned for cities, we'll see how that shakes out in rural Canada. And rural internet, preferably high speed and affordable, as well as bringing natural gas service to more rural areas. None were mentioned.
Now I'm not the first to toss out any of those ideas, but here's another idea I'd like to suggest that might have been included but wasn't.
How about a special tax credit for tillage equipment that will reduce the amount of erosion? Another tax credit for farmers who can demonstrate their farming practices are improving their soil? You could measure it through soil organic matter.
Yes I know there are small provisions for some of these items, at least in part, in a hodge-podge of programs and grants, but wouldn't it be nice to make the incentives significant and the impact significant?
We all know our current government is seen as lingering behind much of the rest of the world on climate change issues. Well sequestering more carbon in the soil could help off-set some of that reputation. And if you are not a fan of taking action against climate change, well, improving the soil has to be a good thing anyway.
So the budget overall tossed a few small bones to agriculture, missed a few things that farmers have been asking for and missed a chance to take some bold and much needed steps.
