Ontario lags other provinces - and particularly Quebec - in support for beginning farmers
Monday, November 1, 2010
Why, for example, say young Ontario farmers, can their Quebec counterparts get a $30,000 grant to attend the Campus d'Alfred in eastern Ontario when they cannot?
by SUZANNE DEUTSCH
The Campus d'Alfred is the only Ontario agriculture college to offer diploma and certificate programs taught exclusively in French, and just under half of the 130 students that attend it come from Quebec.
"The dropout rate, however, is much higher among Ontario students," says vice-principal Gabriel Gauthier. "They don't have that financial incentive that Quebecers have to complete their diploma."
Quebec offers generous grants to qualifying beginning farmers through La Financière du Québec (FADQ). A Quebec student who completes an Ontario college diploma at Campus d'Alfred is eligible to receive a $30,000 grant. It's a strong incentive to stick around and graduate.
The program came into effect after 1961, when the Quebec farm improvement law was adopted. Obtaining an education in agriculture is one of the program's key qualifying requirements and was introduced after 1990. The program is yet another example of Quebec's generous support of its farm sector.
Alexandre Charron, who comes from St-André Avellin in the Outaouais region of Québec, graduated from the campus two years ago. He selected the college primarily because it was closer to home. Attending the Institut de technologie agroalimentaire in St-Hyacinthe (ITA), the closest alternative if he wanted to study in an agriculture program in French, would have meant a good hour and a half longer commute, not counting the added headache of having to deal with Montreal traffic.
As a Quebec resident, Charron was eligible to receive a provincial establishment grant for completing an agricultural program if he chose to farm. Taking his course in Ontario didn't disqualify him from applying for the Quebec grant, but it did come with a penalty. Charron was only eligible for a $30,000 grant instead of the maximum $40,000 he would have qualified for had he opted to take the three-year program that leads to a Quebec college diploma (diplôme d'études collégiales or DEC).
Charron figures going to Alfred and getting his diploma in two years instead of three was worth the $10,000 difference. He never enjoyed going to school and, by taking this path, he avoided taking the core classes in French, English, physical education and humanities that are a required part of the curriculum in Quebec CEGEPs. The third generation farmer now farms full-time with his parents. They operate a broiler operation with 900 square metres of quota, (180,000 kilograms) a feed mill and a small abattoir.
Loan refused
It has been a much tougher road for Tarrah Young, 33, who graduated in environmental biology from the University of Guelph and honed her farming skills through internship programs and working on farms in the Yukon and the United States. Young started farming on 50 acres near Neustadt with her partner Nathan Carey, 29, in 2007. They raise and direct market pasture-raised pigs, poultry and sheep and sell winter vegetables through a community supported agriculture business model.
Young says the couple did obtain a loan from one bank but wanted to check out other options. So they applied to lending programs available through Farm Credit Canada for beginning farmers. They were turned down. Loan officials had no understanding of the type of venture the couple wanted to run, she says. "It was like we were coming from another planet."
The couple now earn enough through the farm to pay the mortgage and allow Young to focus on their operation full time while Carey continues to work off-farm. However, it remains a challenge to find the cash to invest in the type of infrastructure and equipment to meet the operation's needs five years from now.
When she was interning, Young made friends with other interns who were from Quebec. They qualified for the establishment grants and she says the money helped them to reach their farm vision quickly. In contrast, her operation inches along because of the lack of access to capital. It's frustrating, because she has education and experience. "We could be doing better."
Access to capital is key for new farmers, says Joe Dickenson, 29. He runs a cow calf-to-beef finishing operation and grows 100 acres of certified organic corn, soybeans and wheat in Lambton County. He is Ontario's representative on the Canadian Young Farmers' Forum and a director at large on the board of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA). In 2009, Dickenson spearheaded the OFA task force that explored the needs of beginning farmers.
Ensuring there is a return on investment and support for succession are the other major issues, he says, pointing out that the average age of farmers is continuing to rise and farmers who are under 35 make up only 10 per cent of the country's total farm population. Those statistics indicate that not enough young farmers are succeeding to family farms, he says. They also suggest "we need to be focusing on return on investment, since people who would love to farm are choosing not to because they can make more money with less stress doing something else."
Dickenson says the OFA is exploring options it hopes to propose to the provincial government. "I really hope we'll have something out in the near future," he says.
He's aware of the Quebec establishment grant and notes that the support being offered there seems to be working. And he believes that it would be of help elsewhere in the country, too. "They seem to have a fairly strong and vibrant core of young farmers within the agricultural industry in Quebec."
Dickenson points out that Alberta offers a beginning farmer incentive in the form of an interest rate subsidy for the first five years of a loan. Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec also offer loan programs for beginning farmers.
Some non-government grants for beginning farmers do exist in Ontario. The National Farmers' Union local 316's New Farm Project offers up to $1,200 to new, small-scale Kingston area farmers for expenses such as livestock acquisition, horticultural equipment and training. Heifer International, an international non-profit organization, supplies the funding.
Miguel Hahn, one of the project's co-ordinators, says that, while financing is a big component for helping beginning farmers, policies that support smaller operations as well as training are also key.
Support suspended
Sarah Petrevan, an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural affairs spokesperson, says the province had begun to tackle the issue in 2008 but suspended efforts when the recession hit.
Petrevan says plans remain on hold because of the financial situation, although Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell is committed to exploring the issue. There's no time line for introducing a program.
To date, government support mostly appears within existing programs that target a broader segment of Ontario's farm population. Petrevan points to the provincially and federally funded Growing Your Farm Profits workshop as support available to new farmers and others to shape their business plans.
The workshop is mandatory for those who wish to access provincial and federal cost-share programs. These include programs to obtain the services of a farm financial advisor, build skills and obtain the services of other professionals to develop plans for items such as business, succession, marketing, human resources and risk management.
Petrevan adds that the Canadian Agricultural Loans Act provides a loan guarantee to help existing and beginning farmers obtain a loan of up to $500,000.
Ontario's farm industry is also exploring how to address beginning farmers' needs through existing programs or initiatives that would target industry-wide problems. Dickenson uses the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition's efforts to establish risk management programs as an example.
In other cases, the Federation is supporting such task force recommendations as creating a separate category for beginning farmers that would allow them to obtain complete funding for their environmental farm plan, as well as expanding the land transfer tax exemption to those who sell farm assets to beginning farmers even if there is no family relationship.
Dickenson says helping start-up farmers to improve their business acumen is one of the initiatives that the Canadian Young Farmers Forum supports. The Forum holds annual best management practice workshop series that circulate through the provinces. The workshop is underway this year in Ontario. Dickenson says he would like to see similar annual workshops offered in Ontario in at least two different regions of the province.
He notes that Agriculture Minister of State Jean-Pierre Blackburn is planning on holding a national future farmers network meeting this fall to seek feedback on policies and programs. Dickenson calls Blackburn's network a wild card. As of the beginning of October, neither the date nor the network's participants had been finalized, he says.
Quebec's program ‘adequate'
Back in Quebec, Frédéric Marcoux, the president of the province's young farmers' federation, says the amount of cold, hard cash dedicated to beginning farmers is not large enough to make an impact. He would like the grant's name to change to reflect its true impact. "Given the net worth of a farm today, you can't really say that this grant helps young farmers get established," he says.
For his part, André Picard, director of agriculture and forestry financing at La Financière agricole du Québec (FADQ), the provincial lending institution, says that, compared to the rest of the country, "Quebec's program is adequate. The goal is to give a helping hand to the largest number of young people who want to farm, and encourage them to get a solid education, which will help guide them in managing their operation."
The grant is having another impact on the rural landscape, as Denis Beaudoin is finding out. Beaudoin is completing his master's degree in rural economy at the Université Laval and says that Quebec's establishment grants had a tremendous impact on the level of schooling of Quebec farmers. "The grants have really acted as a reward for getting your diploma," he says. "Ninety per cent of farmers who received an establishment grant received some form of formal training in agriculture in 2009; only 18 per cent did in 1991."
Diane Parent, a researcher at the Université Laval, adds that "Quebec farmers are no longer lagging behind Ontario, or the rest of Canada for that matter, in terms of schooling." Parent used Statistics Canada's 2006 census and the Quebec ministry of agriculture (MAPAQ) portrait of young established farmers of 2006 to compare those in Quebec with "13 years of schooling or less" (which includes people who haven't completed high school) and those with post-secondary education not including university degrees with the rest of the country.
"Sadly enough, 10 per cent of young farmers have no diploma at all," she adds. "A college diploma should really be the bare minimum if you plan on taking over a farm that is worth more than $2 million."
Marcoux says the young farmers' federation hopes the government will come up with a strategy that will convince would-be farmers to pursue an education rather than go back to work on the farm right after they get their high school skills diploma in agriculture.
Statistics Canada's 2006 census figures indicate that 88 per cent of farmers in Ontario did not hold a university degree.
The level of support for Quebec farmers has had an undeniable impact on attracting young people to farm if you look at statistics. According to a 2004 study done by le Centre de reference en agriculture et agroalimentaire du Québec (CRAAQ), and based on the 2002 census, Quebec has the highest number of young people farming in Canada. An average farmer was just 47 years old. The Ontario average was 50.7 years and the national average was 49.9 years. According to the 2006 census, an average farmer in Quebec was just 49.3 years-old, compared to an Ontario average of 52.6 years and the national average of 52 years. BF
(With files from Mary Baxter)
Sidebar: A long history of Quebec support
Agriculture is a challenging field and starting off with a good knowledge background is more important than ever. And, while having a degree doesn't guarantee a start-up will be successful, studies show that there is a definite link between good managerial skills and the continued success of any business, according to André Picard, director of agriculture and forestry financing at La Financière agricole du Québec (FADQ), the provincial lending institution.
"The political will for farm support dates back to 1936, when the Office du crédit agricole, which predates the FADQ, was created so farmers could get credit when no banking institution would agree to lend them a dime," says Picard. "Times were difficult and it gave a glimmer of hope to young farmers who wanted to take over the farm."
Picard explains that most support programs were created after 1961, when the Quebec farm improvement law was adopted. Beginning farmers were awarded a $3,000 grant to be applied against their loans. This new measure was to help facilitate access to farm property, so more young farmers would want to farm, and help farm families transfer the farm into the next generation.
Contrary to popular belief, the establishment grants managed by the FADQ aren't automatically given out to those who graduate from high school or college and students aren't the recipients. The grants are aimed at farm businesses whose operator has a potentially profitable start-up project in mind.
The amount of the grant is based upon the level of education/training received. Students who have completed a high school diploma specialized in agriculture can qualify their business for a $20,000 grant. Those who have completed a post-secondary tech diploma in farm business management and operations or a recognized equivalent, can obtain $30,000 and anyone with a Quebec CEGEP diploma, a Diplôme d'études collégiales (DEC) or a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture would be eligible for a $40,000 grant. Applicants must be between 18 and 40 years of age and farming full-time. He or she must own at least 20 per cent of the company's shares and have at least one year's experience in agriculture.
The education requirement is relatively new – in 1990, all you needed was a high school diploma. Since 1994, the FADQ now expects students to graduate having a specialized high school program diploma in agriculture.
Qualifying farmers are also expected to have a proper business plan and to ensure the grants are invested in sound farm businesses that have a long-term value. The FADQ offers a network support to young farmers, enabling the sharing of expertise. It also believes in investing in emerging sectors and helping find new ways to farm.
In addition to these grants, young farmers have also been able to receive financial help to start a business since 2004 and better interest rates. "In all, the FADQ has invested close to $104 million in the past 10 years, to help young beginning farmers," says Picard. BF
Sidebar: The haves and have-nots at OAC's Campus d'Alfred
Quebecers Michael Pilon and Antoine Laurin obtained their high school skills diploma in dairy production last year. Given the number of classes that will be credited, they should get their Ontario college diploma in about one year.
Hugo Campeau, who hails from Brownsburg-Chatham in Québec, arrived at Alfred straight from high school. He lives nearby and is following in the footsteps of his brother, who highly recommended the experience. Pilon, Laurin and Campeau will all qualify for a $30,000 establishment grant.
Tamika Perras is originally from Quebec but recently moved to Ontario. After completing her college diploma at Alfred, she intends to pursue a bachelor'sdegree in agronomy. Her parents recently sold their dairy but if she decides to farm one day in Quebec, she'll be eligible for a $40,000 establishment grant.
Maxime Castonguay, Didier Levac, Mathieu Latour, Miguel Cayer and David Latulippe are proud Franco-Ontarians who will be graduating next spring. The five soon-to-be full time dairy farmers only wish Ontario would offer the level of financial help available in Quebec.
They all said how important it was for them to pursue their education in French. An in-house survey recently completed in March 2010 revealed that the majority of students wanted OAC's Campus d'Alfred to remain unilingual and that all classes be taught in French, says Hélène Blais, coordinator of the agriculture technology program. BF
Sidebar: At Guelph, a growing enrolment and low dropout rates
While Alfred Campus vice-principal Gabriel Gauthier bemoans the dropout rate among students from Ontario farms, other University of Guelph campuses are observing a growing enrolment and low dropout rates.
At the Ridgetown campus, withdrawal rates are very low, says Liz Meidlinger, Ridgetown's manager of communications. She estimates that more than 85 per cent of students will complete their programs and in some the completion rate is nearer 90 to 95 per cent.
At the main campus in Guelph, only five of the 268 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Agricultural Science programs in the 2008-2009 school year withdrew.
At University of Guelph's Kemptville campus, where enrolment in agriculture and food diploma programs is up 13 per cent in 2010, campus withdrawal rates fluctuate between 15 and 20 per cent, says director Claude Naud.
Kemptville typically takes in about 10 Quebec students per intake. This fall, eight students representing about four per cent of the college's first year student population are from Quebec. Naud says retention rates are slightly higher for Quebec students.
Back at Alfred, the vice principal thinks the Ontario students are too complacent. "They (Ontario students) tell themselves they don't necessarily need a diploma to go back and work on the farm," Gabriel Gauthier adds, "so they'll attend the fun classes but they have a hard time sticking with more difficult classes like accounting or management." BF