Bill C-208, a private member’s bill spearheaded by western Manitoba Conservative MP Larry Maguire with amendments to the federal Income Tax Act, cleared the House of Commons in mid-May and Senate in late June. On June 29, it got royal assent.

However, the federal finance department on June 30 pointed out that C-208 as passed “does not include an application date.”

The Liberal-led government said June 30 it’s “committed to facilitating genuine intergenerational share transfers, while preventing tax avoidance that undermines the equity of Canada’s tax system.”

Thus, the government said, it proposes to introduce separate legislation to “clarify” that C-208’s amendments apply at the beginning of the next tax year, starting Jan. 1, 2022.

C-208’s tax law amendments are meant to exclude the sales of farms and other small businesses to adult children or grandchildren from current anti-avoidance rules.

Under pre-C-208 tax law, Maguire said in May, “when a person sells their small business or farm to a family member, the difference between the sale price and the original purchase price is considered a dividend.”

But if the business instead goes to a non-family member, the sale is deemed a capital gain, which is taxed at a lower rate and allows sellers to use their lifetime capital gains exemption, he said.

During debate on C-208 last fall, the Liberals cautioned that Maguire’s bill, as Ontario MP Tony Van Bynen put it, “seeks to amend two of the Income Tax Act’s most important and complex anti-avoidance rules.”

Those rules, he said, are meant to apply when an individual sells shares of a corporation to another corporation that is linked to the same individual — for example, through a family member.

When shares of a Canadian corporation are sold to such a “linked” corporation, the pre-C-208 rules deem that in certain circumstances, the seller has received a taxable dividend from the linked corporation, rather than a capital gain.

The rule, he said, is meant to ensure taxpayers “cannot use linked corporations to, in effect, remove earnings from their corporations, using a sale as a basis to do so.”

But the Conservatives at the time noted C-208 requires that a family member buying such shares of a farm or small business must not sell them for at least 60 months for any reason, other than “by reason of death.”

To curb tax evasion, they said, C-208’s provisions would not apply to such a buyer who sells before that five-year period ends.

‘Intentions clear’

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, in a separate statement Friday, took the finance department’s June 30 announcement to mean the government “will likely be making amendments in order to close potential tax loopholes.”

The CFA said its “primary concern” is that C-208’s changes to the treatment of intergenerational farm transfers “must be made clearly accessible as quickly as possible, as Parliament made its intentions clear through the passage of the bill.”

“In our talks with the accounting community, this delay, and the uncertainty around exactly what the amendments will be, will force many farmers who were looking to transfer their farm to a family member to delay their retirement plans until 2022,” CFA president Mary Robinson said Friday.

“If they transfer to a family member under the current rules, it can potentially cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars more in taxes compared to if this bill was fulfilled.”

C-208, Robinson said, would help “preserve the identity and financial stability of the Canadian family farm.”

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers, meanwhile, said they were “dismayed” to hear of the delay. “Canadians need to understand that this current government is not looking out for the best interest of Canadian family farms,” president Gunter Jochum said Monday in a release.

Federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole also criticized the Trudeau government in a separate statement Friday for “refusing to implement a tax reduction for small business that was passed in Parliament.” –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post New rule on farm transfer tax treatment put off to 2022 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Researcher Annette Desmarais said she was glad, perhaps a bit surprised to see young farmers wanted to farm so they could spend time with family, be closer to nature, and feel pride in their work, among other things.

“Those kinds of motivations I thought were really, really important,” said Desmarais. “If you were to ask people, ‘why are you a professor? Like, what motivates you to be a professor?’ I don’t know how many of the reasons would be similar to these kinds of fundamental, human reasons.”

The insights come as part of an international study on young people’s pathways into farming, spanning China, India, Indonesia and Canada. In Manitoba, the study included interviews with 48 young farmers.

“There is a growing crisis of generational renewal on farms in numerous countries,” Desmarais and co-author Hannah Bihun write in the report. “The average age of farmers is rising, many do not have succession plans, and some studies suggest that young people are leaving the countryside in droves.”

This issue is similar in many northern countries where agriculture is characterized by increasing farm size, debt economies and concentration of capital and land, they write.

Canada has lost one-third of farms since the mid-’80s, the report says. The number of farmers younger than 34 had declined by 70 per cent.

“We don’t know what the future of farmers or farming in Canada will look like if we do not, or if we are unwilling to replace those who are leaving farming with a younger generation of farmers,” Desmarais told the Co-operator.

There’s also a social and economic crisis looming in the countryside, said Desmarais. Farms face tightening margins. Many farmers feel pressure to get bigger, leaning on economies of scale to make a bit more profit.

Reasons

The study looked at the farmers who are “bucking this trend” to become farmers — whether by taking over a family farm, or by moving from the city to start a new operation.

Why these young people wanted to farm was striking, said Desmarais.

The most commonly mentioned motivation was family, specifically the ability to work near parents, children and other family members. Some also wanted to raise children on the farm and instil in them the value of hard work.

“Part of it is raising our kids on the farm,” said one young farmer. “That’s probably one of the reasons why we do what we do.”

The second-most-common motivator was a quiet life in close proximity to nature. Young farmers spoke about the value of privacy, working with animals, and connecting with nature.

Young farmers also valued the diverse set of skills and tasks required each day and liked the sense of pride their work gave them.

“You go from one thing to the next — you’re a veterinarian, engineer, welder, accountant, business person, marketing,” said one farmer. “And then growing food for people.”

Other identified motivators included a sense of social responsibility, support from parents and family, rural culture, viability or profitability, and autonomy.

Obstacles

Despite these motivators, young farmers face many barriers in entering and continuing to farm, the report says.

Eighty-five per cent of farmers surveyed mentioned access to land as a barrier, whether because of rising prices or competing for the land with other farmers or large corporate farms. The most common obstacle was inability to access capital to purchase the land.

While she expected access to land to come up, she didn’t expect it to be so universal an obstacle, said Desmarais. Conventional, organic and direct-marketing farmers all mentioned access to land as a barrier.

Conventional farmers felt they needed to get bigger to survive. Some small-scale direct marketers farmed that way because they had no other option — they could not get more land.

This will not come as a surprise to many. At its February AGM, Keystone Agricultural Producers passed two resolutions related to increasing land access. One called on KAP to lobby for tax breaks for landowners who rent or sell to young farmers.

“Young farmers just are having a very difficult time,” said District 6 director Rauri Qually, who brought the resolution forward. “Basically buying land is out of the question for us, but even to rent it is getting more and more out of the question.”

The second resolution was to request a review of the province’s Farmland Ownership Act to “ensure that Manitoba agricultural producers’ best interests are preserved.” KAP was investigating fears that foreign money and conservation groups were driving up prices, the organization said during an advisory council meeting in July.

Land access is also an issue for small-scale farmers, said Phil Veldhuis, president of Direct Farm Manitoba.

“We have also had lots of direct marketers rely on rented land close to the city that eventually was developed and they lost their business or had to re-establish,” Veldhuis said. “Direct marketing needs a large population base of customers, so people wanting small acreages have to compete with suburban sprawl.”

Farmers who are very confined by their land base can’t diversify into more crops or animals, and so can’t take advantage of the clientele they’ve built up, said Veldhuis.

Smaller properties are often priced even higher per acre than open farmland, Veldhuis said.

“That makes the ag lenders reluctant to get involved. Rural municipalities are often reluctant to subdivide farmland to make smaller pieces available to small farm operations,” he said.

Constrained by their small land base, many of these small-scale farmers — vegetable farmers in particular — intensify their operations to produce more income per acre.

“You might generate $4,000/ac. with a horticulture enterprise, instead of $400/ac. growing wheat,” Veldhuis said. Some intensive farmers can generate a lot more — up to $40,000 per acre, one direct-marketing farmer told the Co-operator last year.

Accessing credit and managing finances was the second-most-common barrier young farmers mentioned. For instance, one young dairy farmer explained there would be more young dairy farmers if it were easier to build equity to buy quota.

“There’s a lot of great herdsmen out there who would be great farmers. But they just don’t have the equity to actually do it,” he said.

He added that the Manitoba New Entrant program helps, but it still takes a lot of money to get started.

Policy and government regulation was the third-most-common barrier young farmers identified, which included concerns about supply management. Risk and weather came in fourth followed by social and physical isolation, succession planning and public perception of agriculture.

The post Young farmers spurred by fundamental human reasons: study appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In front of the living room stands a Christmas tree covered in an eclectic mix of decorations collected throughout the Shoal Lake couple’s 56-plus years together. Stockings are hung by the chimney — one for each family member who will be home this year — with the first of a series of clues pinned to each. The clues, written by Bev, will guide the person to their gift hidden somewhere in the house.

Bev attributes her Christmas spirit to her mother, who raised three children on her own. “Mom made Christmas so special despite being on welfare and faced with hardships,” she said.

Throughout the years Bev and Erny have “put the commercialism of Christmas on the back burner” and kept the focus on family and fun, agreeing that their favourite gift is the joy of family togetherness.

And it’s a gift they receive every year, as the couple’s six children and eight grandsons still enjoy coming to them or having them travel to share in the merriment.

“This is the best place to celebrate Christmas!” said teenage grandson, Cory Mervyn of Strathclair. What makes Christmas extra special for Cory is the fact that his parents, Susan and Wayne Mervyn, have breakfast at their farm home, and then Susan’s parents, Erny and Bev, welcome one and all for dinner, games, lots of laughter, and the scavenger hunt for gifts.

Both Erny and Bev say that gifts over the years have never been on the expensive side, as they feel the sharing is more important than the dollar amount spent.

“Christmas is what you make of it!” said Bev. “It’s not what’s under the tree that matters, it’s who’s gathered around.”

The post Home for the holidays appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

These young people are a farm’s future and a grandparent’s legacy. It’s important that grandparents understand their role in keeping kids safe on the farm.

The farm is an incredible place for kids to grow up or visit. Nothing is better than being the one to introduce your grandchild to a baby chick, or show them how to successfully pull a carrot on the first try. The farm is a great place to learn about the value of hard work and nothing is more wonderful than experiencing the joys of farming life alongside a grandchild.

Talking about children and farming can be an emotional experience. There is one thing that we can all agree on – the death of even just one child is a horrible tragedy. Grandparents are vital to the success and safety of their grandchildren. Of course it’s hard to say no when grandchildren jump up and down and plead, “Oh please Grandpa! Just one ride in the tractor!” However, your legacy depends on keeping these young people safe from harm. So what can you do as a grandparent to keep your grandchildren safe?

First of all, children aren’t miniature adults. Even the most advanced eight-year-old is still a child. Children don’t have the experience, physical strength or understanding to always make the right choice, handle large equipment or be entrusted with farming jobs.

If you’d like to introduce your grandchildren to farming, there are tasks that can teach the fundamentals without endangering their lives. The North American Guidelines for Children’s Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) is a great tool to determine such tasks.

Establishing boundaries is essential in making sure that children understand that farming is an occupation and can be hazardous. It’s not “mean” to tell children that certain areas of the farm are off limits. Talk to your grandchildren about hazards around the farm, it’s a great learning opportunity for the children and a good reminder for you.

Supervision is key in preventing injuries. Even if you have an established play area for your grandchildren, it is no substitute for supervision. A watchful eye can prevent a tragedy.

Children model the behaviour that they see around them. Often grandchildren want to do things just like Grandma or Grandpa. It’s important that they see you perform tasks safely. If you model safe behaviour, your grandchildren are more likely to behave in safe ways too.

Rethink your traditions. If they’re risky, build new traditions. Talk about farm equipment, show them safety gear, explore the farm together in a safe and controlled way. You don’t have to put a child in a potentially hazardous situation in order to establish traditions with your grandchildren.

Grandchildren are one of life’s greatest joys. Being able to see your grandchildren grow and thrive and enjoy the farm is incredibly satisfying. Take the time to teach age-appropriate tasks, establish boundaries, provide supervision, model safe behaviour and build safe traditions. These steps will not only help keep your grandchildren safe, but will help safeguard your legacy.

Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (CASW) is a public awareness campaign focusing on the importance of farm safety. CASW takes place every year during the third week of March. In 2018, CASW takes place March 11 to 17.

This article was originally published on Grainews.

The post Keep your grandchildren safe on the farm appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“What are we afraid of?” asked Chan, speaking at the annual Dairy Farmers of Manitoba conference in Winnipeg. “Why don’t people speak up when someone in your family or a friend says something wrong about agriculture?”

No one wants a family gathering to dissolve into a shouting match over animal welfare or biotechnology, Chan said, but she stressed that, at the end of the day, speaking louder isn’t going to change anyone’s mind.

“You want to meet these consumers where they stand, we don’t want to get up on our soapbox,” she said.

Too often, producers fall into the mindset that if they can just hammer home enough facts or if they can just convince a consumer to think like they do, all their problems will disappear, Chan said.

Not so, according to the senior manager of veterinary services at Zoetis.

“Take a step back and ask them what their concerns are,” she said. “When they raise these issues and instead of going straight into educating them about what it is that actually happens… pause for a moment.”

Asking follow-up questions about why they are concerned and where they got their information from is also important, said Chan, adding if producers listen and understand consumer concerns they’ll be able to move forward constructively.

“Get them to expand,” she said. “Just say, ‘Hmm, that’s interesting, I certainly don’t want antibiotics in my food either; what is it that worries you?’ ”

Once common ground is established, farmers can begin introducing the information they want consumers to hear.

“That next piece is we talk about a safe and wholesome product,” she said, adding the vast array of choice in grocery story does beg certain questions — questions to which consumers don’t often have reliable answers.

For example, with some products labeled as “antibiotic free,” consumers are left wondering if other products have antibiotics in them, or are unclear on how products are produced, Chan said.

“The inference is that maybe there are products that have antibiotics in it, so should I be worried?”

But slamming organic products or denigrating certain production methods isn’t helpful either. Instead, Chan said producers should talk about how they do things on their own operations, the care and attention they give to animals and explain what labels represent in terms of on-farm practices.

“We are all in this together,” she said.

Sharing the kind of research being done on animal welfare is also an important way to demonstrate the level of care provided. She referenced current dairy research that looks at neuroplasticity in calves as an example of the lengths researchers go to increase cow comfort.

“So these are things that we’re engaging in on the dairy side that really make me proud to be doing what we are doing,” Chan said. “I don’t think people understand how important it is to us that we are producing a safe and nutritious food product and that means that we have to be caring for our cows and providing them with a good quality of life.”

Producers also can’t expect that consumers will learn about food production and animal care if they stay silent.

“We should be shouting that from the rooftops and if we’re not comfortable doing that, we definitely need to be supporting those who are,” Chan said. “Because we need to be engaged and we need to make sure we are a part of that story.”

— Shannon VanRaes is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator and Country Guide in Winnipeg. Follow her at @ShannonVanRaes on Twitter.

The post Talk to family, friends about farming appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

I see it every time I tell someone our holiday plans. They get a nostalgic look in their eyes even though some have never experienced it. It seems like everyone has a picture of what that would look and feel like and to most of them, that sounds pretty darned nice and something they’d love to experience.

In part, I suspect it’s because they have the romantic image of the farm of yesterday firmly fixed in their minds. As we all know, that small mixed farm of yesterday is largely consigned to the pages of history, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong about the charms of visiting the farm this time of year.

In fact in the ways that count, they’re quite right. After all, it’s always great to get away from it all and unplug for a few days. Our farm is more than 10 miles from the nearest town, so it’s always quiet and peaceful. To me, that means no traffic, and maybe a chance to go for a snowmobile ride or snowshoeing.

To the younger generation there are, of course, the twin attractions of grandma and grandpa. Even an old crank like me gets a bit nostalgic watching my daughter bake sugar cookies and go ice fishing with them.

In our family, the farm is still very much everyone’s spiritual home, so we gather from far and wide when we have a chance. The celebrations over the years have waxed and waned as kids got older, moved away, then started having kids themselves. Suddenly they find the trip back to their roots becomes more important.

It obviously doesn’t happen every year, but we can still occasionally expect to see the cousins of my generation show up, from destinations like Calgary and Vancouver. Sometimes however, that gathering of the clan can shatter the peace.

As regular readers of this page will no doubt have concluded, I am a man of strong opinions. That I can assure you, did not appear out of thin air. Our dinner table has, more than once, been the scene of vigorous political debate, especially as I found myself in my early 20s and holding opinions my father didn’t necessarily sign off on. I strongly suspect my growing small ‘C’ fiscal conservatism warms his heart these days, but of course he’s too much of a gentleman to say anything.

That Christmas dinner table has also been where new family members have been introduced over the years. It was there I first met people who are now family stalwarts like my cousin’s husband and a favourite aunt’s new husband (who despite his background in construction, not agriculture, has become one of my most faithful readers). It is at events like this that the family circle is widened just a bit.

Along with the people are the traditions that also make these annual events special. I still recall going out into the bush with my dad to cut a Christmas tree every year — one of the very clear benefits of our remote location. I also remember chopping ice ever year from the dugout to make ice cream, always from fresh cream from a nearby neighbour. How the French-Canadian meat pie tourtiere came to be a feature of our Scottish-Swedish family’s table has always been a bit unclear, but I’ve strongly suspected the answer lays in the curling rink of the nearby French community of Zenon Park.

For my now-departed grandmother, the faith aspect of the holiday was very important. For many years following leaving the farm, I would accompany her to the Christmas Eve service in our nearby town. It might not have been something I’d have done on my own, but it became an annual ritual itself, and I came to really like it. It was an annual check-in with a community that, due to my departure first for school and then for work, I wasn’t really a part of anymore. Not that you’d know it from the way I was enthusiastically greeted by everyone each and every year.

It’s also always interesting to see who else has come home for Christmas when I go to town. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a catch-up visit with a high school classmate in the aisles of the local co-op store in the day or two before the actual holiday. It would seem, like salmon swimming upstream to return to their spawning grounds, many of us feel a powerful pull towards home in the holiday season.

None of these things are special in and of themselves. I’m sure there are thousands of people who could tell very similar stories of their own connection to the farm. But to me and my family they are very special, as those similar stories are special to those folks.

While the road to the farm is a long one — about an eight-hour one-way drive in my case — it will always be worth it.

The post Editorial: A farm Christmas appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

I will outline the pros and cons of each method so you can see how to best fit them into your farming operation, and dispel some myths and fallacies surrounding pregnancy examination. In this dry year, pregnancy checking the herd earlier is a way to remove culls and ship open cows in order to both preserve grass and sell when the market for cows is typically highest.

Rectal examination has been performed by veterinarians for eons and very little has changed in this science. It is a relatively quick, cost-effective and safe procedure in the right hands. Accuracy is good in the early stages of pregnancy (30 to 90 days). In mid-gestation (four to seven months) it is not uncommon for veterinarians to be out two weeks to a month in their estimates.

There are several reasons for this. First, gestational length still varies tremendously. I always use the example of a flush of embryos put into recipient cows. Even though genetics are identical and they are implanted within minutes of each other, it is not uncommon to have the recipients calving up to one month apart. Depending on breed and sex of calf, gestations also vary greatly. The veterinarian may palpate the non-pregnant horn of the uterus giving a false underestimation of pregnancy status. The most important things are whether the cow is open or is late.

With a good setup with a skilled veterinarian, up to 100 head can be checked in an hour. I still frequently hear that pregnancy examinations can cause abortions, but there is only a very slight risk in the real early stages of pregnancy (around 30 days) and skilled palpators are seldom in the rectum for more than a few seconds, which minimizes any risk. Nor, as some believe, do we manipulate the fetus during the examination. Rough handling and banging through the chute are more likely to cause abortions than any rectal palpations ever have — but with today’s setups that is very rare indeed.

One must keep in mind abortions still normally occur in two to three per cent of cattle yearly. This has numerous causes, including genetic defects, infectious causes, twinning and trauma.

A good setup preferably has a palpation cage, OB sleeves and lube. Veterinarians always need to find a positive sign of pregnancy. This involves balloting the uterus or feeling for the presence of cotyledons. In confirming a cow open, the whole reproductive tract is explored. The only cows that are difficult to do are extremely fat ones. Their internal fat pushes the uterus down making it difficult to reach and retract to confirm an open uterus.

Ultrasounding requires a large capital outlay for the veterinarian and the diagnostic intent may be different.

Reproductive problems can be explored since you can differentiate fluid from pus and make a more definitive diagnosis. If interested in fetal sexing this (although more difficult and time consuming) can be accomplished when cows are 55 to 75 days pregnant. The ultrasound is very accurate in the 30- to 75-day range, but less so in the later stages of pregnancy.

Newer ultrasounds have probes that get much deeper so allow more accuracy later in pregnancy. Others have introducers whereby the veterinarian’s arm does not even enter the rectum. We need to watch these as occasionally the rectum can be perforated and a massive peritonitis is the result. Vets use lots of lube if using the probe introducer.

Fine feel and gentleness are virtues when it comes to rectal palpation. In inexperienced hands, full bladders may be misdiagnosed as pregnancies and other pregnancies can be missed. Veterinarians have gladly embraced this ultrasound concept since rectal palpation is really hard on shoulders and elbows. You will find most mixed practices use ultrasounds and the newer-graduate veterinarians are well trained in their usage. In any pregnancy examination we must strive to be 99 per cent-plus accurate in the pregnant versus non-pregnant department. Opens are diagnosed with the ultrasound and often double-checked by palpation by the attending veterinarian just to be sure.

With a good internal probe (quality of ultrasounds also varies considerably) besides fetal sexing, twins can be picked up and this may help the producer manage these cases differently. The fetal sexing is impossible doing manually and twins will rarely be picked up. Again though, cows must be ultrasounded early in pregnancy for this to be accomplished. Very early embryonic deaths can be diagnosed where you have a fetus but no fetal heartbeat indicating a dead fetus. Cysts on the ovaries can also be detected and easily differentiated between luteal and follicular. These cysts require a slightly different treatment regime, which your veterinarians can explain.

As you can see, both forms of pregnancy examination have merit. Rectal palpation being fast and safe is commonly done in most beef herds and is an important management tool. Ultrasounds generally are also used in problem breeders or when specialized procedures such as fetal sexing are required. Cows being sold with sexed embryos are often reconfirmed in calf by rectal palpation later in the year. Pregnancy checking whether manual or with ultrasound is done by upwards of 70 to 80 per cent-plus of cattlemen across Western Canada, but it should be much higher when we think of the feed costs this saves or being able to identify problem breeders earlier. It is even more critical as far as purebred cattle are concerned with more dollars tied up in that unborn calf.

If there has been a reproductive disease go through the herd, it can be caught earlier and dealt with. Much better to find you have open cows at weaning than at calving time when you finally notice cows aren’t bagging up. At the same time as pregnancy examination, reproductive problems can be explored and cows can be condition scored; vaccinations given; lice and worming treatments implemented or discussed with your veterinarian.

Lots can be done at the pregnancy examination visit to help with the year-round health of your herd so let’s utilize this opportunity to the fullest for both the purebred and commercial herds.

There are advantages to both techniques, but at the end of the day the most important thing is to have reproductive exams performed on your beef cattle at least once a year. If handling setups are available at pastures, pregnancy checking can be done early to remove opens.

Keep in mind other management procedures can be done in the summer at the same time such as vaccinating, deworming and fly control.

The post Beef 911: Rectal palpation versus ultrasound for pregnant cows appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Try this instead: Prescription pill bottles (which most grandmas seem to acquire in abundance) have an insert in the lid to make them childproof. Pry out this insert and you will find that it fits perfectly into the top of the pill bottle. Cut a tiny X in the middle of the insert to hold a stick. (Short pieces of small dowelling left over from other projects can be cut into appropriate lengths, depending on the size of the pill bottle.) Poke about two-thirds of the stick through the slit but leave enough for a tiny hand to hold. Fill the pill bottle with your favourite popsicle mix, (leaving a little room for expansion) insert the stick and freeze. Run warm water over the pill bottle to remove the popsicle.

– Alma Barkman writes from Winnipeg.

The post Small Popsicles For Small Kids appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

He was as rooted into the black soil that he farmed as were the crops that he raised year after year.

For Jerry, farming wasn’t a way of making a living or getting ahead financially. Farming was life. Farming gave him everything; food, clothing, shelter, hard work, leisure, love, children, grief, fear, danger, triumph, hope.

The only act of infidelity for which Jerry could have ever been accused and found guilty of, was a love affair with Mother Earth. And yet she could dash his hopes, change his mind, defeat his purposes. He loved her with a passion, and his greatest moments of triumph,

his highest achievements, were those times when she would return a harvest so bountiful his bins couldn’t hold it.

We admit our view of Dad has come off as a bit romantic, a bit flowered. But there would be no music, no literature, no medicine, if not first there was farming. Farming is the guarantee, the security, that gives us time to pursue all else.

———

Farmingwasn’ta wayofmakinga

livingorgetting aheadfinancially. Farmingwaslife.

The post T – for Sep. 23, 2010 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Using data from the 2007 General Social Survey, the study found about 1.65 million people over age 45 to be providing care for a family member with a long-term health problem or physical limitation and living far enough away that significant travel was required.

The Statistics Canada report says 22 per cent of caregivers now drive at least an hour to reach the person they care for while over half (62 per cent) lived more than half a day’s travel away.

The report says caregivers log more missed days of work and incur personal expenses which grow in proportion to the distance covered. Women were more likely than men to take time off work.

“As the population of seniors increases and families live farther apart, many Canadians face the challenges of caring for an aging parent from a distance,” the report notes.

It’s a reality long faced by rural residents, says a retired nurse in Sprague. She’s leading the charge for more personal-care and assisted-living housing to be built in southeastern Manitoba.

Elsa Laing says she could cite many examples of families split up because, without care facilities in the community, the elder relative has had to move away. The pressure is not only on the family who still has to travel to see their relatives, but on the relocated individuals themselves, who feel socially uprooted and isolated.

“Long-distance care issues are what’s really behind the push for more housing locally,” Laing said.

lorraine@fbcpublishing.com

The post Report Looks At Long-Distance Care Giving appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.