THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017
VOL. 95 | NO. 35 | $4.25
MILKWEED CROP? |
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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FARMER GROWS NOXIOUS WEED
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BRINGING IN THE GOLD
Rich DeConinck Smith swaths long rows of canola to be combined near D’Arcy, Sask., Aug. 22. |
PAULA LARSON PHOTO
FEDERAL TAX REVISIONS
FREE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS
Tax changes impact could be ‘humongous’
No panic from Canada, Mexico over threat to terminate NAFTA
BY ED WHITE WINNIPEG BUREAU
The last thing Andrew Peden needs to think about during a busy harvest season is tax planning. But the Minburn, Alta., grower finds himself preoccupied with worry about proposed federal tax changes that he thinks could mess up his farm and his son’s ability to come home one day and take over the operation. “It’s going to have some huge implications with trying to pass my farm down to my son,” said Peden. “He wants to come back and take over.” The situation is also scary for him and his wife, who don’t know how the changes could affect farm income or how they have to run their operation. “The tax bill could be humongous. Everything we have is tied up in this farm,” said Peden. Indeed, most farmers have most
or all of their savings invested in their farms. Any income for themselves and the rest of their family comes is earned from the farm, and until now, family farms in Western Canada have been encouraged to incorporate or organize itself to allow for fair treatment of spouses and children and for retirement and succession. Now a massive series of tax revisions has been proposed. It’s been announced at the height of the growing season and only allows for public responses until Oct. 2, when many farmers will still be bringing in the harvest. Tax, accounting and succession experts say the proposed rules could have a major impact on farm families; undermining the ability of some family farms to survive and encouraging farm families to get out of the business. SEE TAX CHANGES, PAGE 5
Donald Trump has been in full bully-boy mode about NAFTA, twice threatening to “terminate” it in recent days. And his U.S. Trade Representative immediately tabled a demand to eliminate the Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism, a provision that Canada and Mexico have often said is key to protecting them against the overwhelming power of the U.S. But Canadian farmers, as well as agriculture and food players, don’t seem too scared by the bluster. The U.S. has much less ability to play dirty than it did when Canada and the U.S. created the Free Trade Agreement and the Chapter 19 mechanism back in 1988. “I think this is the kind of talk you hear at the beginning of negotiations,” said Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Ron Bonnett. “It’s not actually clear (termination) would have any great effect,” said John Ross, executive director of the Canadian Pork Council. The foundation for this non-
panicked attitude is the reality that the U.S. isn’t free to nail its northern and southern neighbours with capricious trade tariffs and blockages, as it was in the days before the FTA and NAFTA were signed. International trade litigator and former diplomat Lawrence Herman of Toronto law firm Cassels Brock notes that the U.S. has given up the right to hit individual countries with discriminatory tariffs in the years since the 1988 and 1993 deals were made, and it can’t really go back. “They can’t. They’re bound (by the World Trade Organization),” said Herman, a prominent member of the C.D. Howe Institute, in an interview. Since NAFTA, the U.S., Canada and Mexico have become part of the WTO, which did not exist before NAFTA. That agreement bans members from treating trading partners differently, so if the U.S. pulled out of NAFTA, Canada and Mexico would still have to be treated as “Most Favoured Nation” trading partners and would only be subject to the same tariffs that those sorts of countries face. SEE NO PANIC, PAGE 4
u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv.:; AUGUST 31, 2017 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Stn. Main, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240
One proposed rule favours farmers selling their land to neighbours or strangers rather than their children
BY ED WHITE WINNIPEG BUREAU