Honourable senators, I rise today to highlight the important steps that many Canadian farmers have taken to make their operations more environmentally sustainable.

This government has made it clear that the fight against climate change remains one of its key focuses. While I wholeheartedly support the important goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, I am wary of the impacts that initiatives such as the Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System will have on our agricultural industry.

Earlier this year, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada announced this new system. Unfortunately, draft regulations for Canada’s carbon offset market indicate that farmers won’t receive credit for removing any greenhouse gas emissions before 2017.

While the government established its plan to put a national cost on carbon that same year, many farmers had already taken steps over previous years to make their land a zero-till operation — this technique increases the retention of organic sequestration, organic matter and nutrient cycling, which in turn increases carbon sequestration — or to have perennial forage coverage. There is more carbon in soils under perennial forage than annual crops due, in part, to the former’s ability to better transfer carbon to the soil.

Following the minister’s announcement of the new system, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and other producer groups formed the Agriculture Carbon Alliance to:

. . . ensure that Canadian farmers’ sustainable practices are recognized through a policy environment that maintains their competitiveness, supports their livelihoods, and leverages their critical role as stewards of the land.

I would like to thank CFA and their industry partners for continuing to support farmers and their notable efforts to go green.

At this time, I would also like to acknowledge that the 2021 federal budget includes provisions to support farmers, namely by returning a portion of the proceeds from the price on pollution directly to farmers in backstop jurisdictions — currently Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario — beginning in 2021-22. While this is a positive step, I am hopeful more support — and recognition for work that has already been completed — will be offered moving forward.

Honourable colleagues, it is clear that the agriculture industry understands and supports the call to action to fight climate change. However, to achieve our goals in greenhouse gas reduction, government and industry must work together. Canadian agriculture producers and processors need the government’s support in transitioning their operations to be more sustainable, but they also require the government’s support while they seek to change decades-long practices and procedures.

I do hope that when the time comes to discuss these issues in the chamber, you will acknowledge the steps that many farmers have already proactively taken in the past. It is in our nation’s best interests that government and agriculture work collaboratively to establish cleaner and greener farming practices that will not only benefit the future of farming but the whole of Canada as well.

Thank you. Meegwetch.