Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Brandon—Souris is right to be defending the needs of farmers. Our government recognizes the importance of agriculture and it will continue to ensure that the agriculture sector remains strong in this country. Budget 2017 clearly acknowledges that Canada's agriculture and agrifood sector is a major engine for economic growth.

The agricultural industry will benefit from many initiatives announced in budget 2017. These include an investment of $70 million over six years to further support agricultural discovery science and innovation; the creation of a new strategic innovation fund, which will invest $1.26 billion over five years to improve access to support measures for value-added processors; an investment of $950 million in superclusters that increase Canada's global competitiveness by focusing on innovative industries, including the agrifood industry; an investment of $200 million over four years to support clean technologies in Canada's natural resources sectors; an investment of $2 billion to support rural infrastructure, including roads and bridges, to allow Canadian agrifood producers to more easily access markets in Canada and abroad; an investment of $80 million for a new, world-class plant health research facility; and an investment of $6 million over three years to support the growth of businesses by streamlining the regulations governing Canada's trade partners.

The government is also determined to establish a tax system that benefits the middle class and those working hard to join it. This commitment includes the understanding that, over time, changes in the economy have made many of the provisions of Canada's tax laws less relevant than they were when they were passed.

That is why, in budget 2017, we launched consultations on the ongoing relevance and possible elimination of the income tax deferral available via cash purchase tickets for deliveries of listed grains. Budget 2017 invited stakeholders to share their comments on this tax deferral, including the appropriate transition period and rules.

As specified in the budget, the consultation period was initially supposed to end on May 24, 2017. However, given the overlapping initial consultation and spring seeding seasons, when farmers are very busy, the Department of Finance decided last month to extend the consultation period until July 24, 2017. As such, all stakeholders who wish to take part in consultations will be able to do so. Once the department has received comments from all stakeholders, it will take into account all views when it looks at the merits of maintaining the tax deferral on income earned through advance payments for the delivery of listed grains.

This will also allow us to make sure that we meet our government's commitment to implement a fair tax system that benefits the middle class and those working hard to join it, which—

Jean-Claude Poissant

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