QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Carbon Taxes for Farmers
June 2, 2022
Minister, at a time of war, pandemic and global food crisis in which food security is paramount, this Trudeau government continues to throw roadblocks in the path of Canadian agricultural producers who are trying to help solve those problems. Supply shortages and dry conditions, combined with out-of-control Liberal spending and crushing inflation, mean increases in the cost of everything, including farm input costs. All this Trudeau government delivers are a huge tariff to spike already high fertilizer costs and a skyrocketing carbon tax with a so-called rebate that returns agricultural producers only pennies on the dollar. Farmers in my province of Saskatchewan are having serious concerns about whether to even put crops in the ground in what should be the bread basket of the world.
When will your government get out of the way, exempt agricultural producers from your punishing carbon tax and let our Canadian farmers feed the world?
Thank you. Actually, farmers benefit from some exemptions from the price on pollution: the on-farm diesel and cardlock; the greenhouse sector also has a significant exemption. So we do recognize that and we are reinvesting the revenue from the price on pollution in the agricultural sector. We are returning a larger amount to the community in general, but we are also saving some part of these revenues to return to the agricultural sector. Last year, we’re talking about $100 million that is going back into the pockets of our farmers through this rebate, and $121 million for the coming year. So we are returning it to our farmers.
It’s true this year that everyone in every sector is facing an increase in their input costs and also in the price of sales of their produce. Once again, our government is there to support our farmers. We’re talking about $4 billion last year. It is a record. We are the government who has increased the business risk management programs. So I think we are definitely there to support our farmers.
