Hon. Éric Forest: Thank you for being with us today, minister.

With respect to land occupancy, one of the important steps is to ensure the continuity of family farms. This is an important issue as our farmers are facing many economic pressures. The average age of farmers continues to rise, and less than two thirds of them have a designated successor.

For many years, our tax rules have penalized those who want to transfer their business to a family member. It is more profitable for them to sell the business to a stranger or to simply close down, which undermines land occupancy.

We have known about this problem for a long time. The Prime Minister had asked you to resolve this issue in your previous mandate letter.

Last June, the Senate and the House of Commons passed Bill C-208 to correct this inequity. However, nothing has happened since then. Bill C-208 still has not been implemented. Budget 2022 only proposes a consultation process, even though this issue has been studied for several years.

How do you explain that, 12 months after Bill C-208 was passed, this legislation still has not been applied or come into force?