Farm Credit Canada Act

Marginal note:Purpose

• 4 (1) The purpose of the Corporation is to enhance rural Canada by providing specialized and personalized business and financial services and products to farming operations, including family farms, and to those businesses in rural Canada, including small and medium-sized businesses, that are businesses related to farming. The primary focus of the activities of the Corporation shall be on farming operations, including family farms.

• Marginal note:Powers

  (2) In carrying out its purpose, the Corporation has the power to

  • (a) make loans or guarantee loans made to persons or bodies for the following purposes, namely,

    • (i) to acquire, develop or improve farm lands and buildings, or personal property used or to be used in a farming operation,

    • (ii) to discharge liabilities or consolidate debts,

    • (iii) to pay costs associated with carrying on a farming operation or a business related to farming,

    • (iv) to assist in the development of a diversified enterprise on farm lands and buildings, and

    • (v) to acquire, develop or improve real or personal property used or to be used in a business related to farming;

  • (b) acquire and hold security interests of any kind and in any form for loans made, guarantees given or agreements entered into;

  • (c) acquire, by judicial proceedings or in any other manner, any interest in security acquired or held by it, and hold, exchange, lease, sell or otherwise dispose of any such interest;

  • (d) acquire and hold, exchange, lease, sell or otherwise dispose of any interest in real and personal property for use in the management of its business;

  • (e) enter into agreements with any department or agency of the government of Canada or of a province, or with any other person or body;

  • (f) provide specialized counselling services;

  • (f.1) provide business services and products that complement those available from the public and private sectors;

  • (f.2) procure the incorporation, dissolution or amalgamation of subsidiaries and acquire or dispose of any shares in them;

  • (f.3) provide lease financing for assets used or to be used in a farming operation or a business related to farming;

  • (f.4) acquire and dispose of investments in farming operations or in businesses related to farming, including shares of corporations that carry on those operations or businesses, within parameters that are satisfactory to the Minister of Finance;

  • (f.41) dispose of farmland acquired by it, provided that the disposal is at fair market value and is done as quickly as possible, and in any case no longer than five years, after the acquisition;

  • (f.5) provide its business and financial services and products, including loans, guarantees, lease financing and equity investments, directly, through arrangements with other persons or bodies or, in the case of financial services, as a member of a financing syndicate;

  • (g) determine and charge interest on loans made by it and fees for guarantees given and services provided by it;

  • (h) carry out such other duties or functions as may be assigned to it by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food in relation to the administration of any program benefiting rural Canada, or as are assigned to it pursuant to any other Act, to the extent that it is able to recover the costs of carrying out those duties or functions; and

  • (i) do such other things as it considers are incidental to the exercise of its powers.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (3) The Corporation may, in writing, determine which husbandry activities, other than those mentioned in the definition “farming” in section 2, constitute farming for the purposes of that definition.

• Marginal note:Capacity

  (4) In carrying out its powers, the Corporation has the capacity of a natural person.