Ritz Says Capital Gains Exemption Better Reflects Farm Values

This week’s federal budget is getting good reviews from the majority of Canada’s agriculture sector.

The increase to the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption is getting the most attention from agriculture groups.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says when they took over in 2006, it sat at $500,000 and they’ve made an effort to move it up.

"We've all seen the value of farms grow exponentially, so this is a reflection of that," he said. "We of course moved it up to $750,000; indexed it - it climbed to a little over $800,000. Now we're setting the benchmark at a million dollars to reflect that value that we see out there in farm country.

" Also earmarked in the budget was $12 million over two years, starting in 2016 for the AgriMarketing Program to promote Canadian agricultural and agri-food products around the world.