‘It adds stress:’ Sask. farmers react to amended carbon tax relief bill

Some Saskatchewan farmers are speaking out against the latest amendment to Bill C-234.

The private member’s bill introduced in the House of Commons was intended to create exemptions for farmers paying the carbon tax for fuel used for things like cooling and heating farms as well as for fuel used for grain dryers.

However, the Senate voted 40-39 on Tuesday night in favour of amending the bill to remove the exemptions for cooling and heating.

Angela Jones says the issue of carbon tax exemptions are “top of mind” for farmers in the province. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)

Angela Jones, who operates a grain farm near Wadena in northeast Saskatchewan, says Bill C-234 is a pressing issue.

“I think every producer in the province has thoughts on that bill,” Jones said Wednesday at the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) annual general meeting in Regina.

“It’s definitely on top of mind for everybody. It’s in the discussions in the coffee shop (and) it’s in the discussions on the street. It’s just making everything more expensive (and after) a couple years, the producers are feeling the pinch for sure.”

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Jones said it’s a huge cause for stress among farmers but she feels their hands are tied.

“So many of the costs we can’t reduce. Farmers are constantly doing what they can to reduce what our costs are,” she said.

”We’ve already taken all the steps we can to reduce the fuel use (and) reduce our inputs and things like that. A lot of the tax that’s getting charged to us is unavoidable.”

Devon Walker, an APAS board member, said farmers don’t have other options to heat barns.

“For us here in Saskatchewan as farmers, I feel like we’ve reduced as much as we can and even after we’ve reduced those energy usages we’re still hit with a tax,” he said.

APAS president Ian Boxall said he was very disappointed in the Senate’s vote.

He said the amendment changes the intent of the bill going forward and fears it won’t get passed in the House.

“My fear is if they take out the heating of barns — which is a huge expense for those producers that are using traditional methods to heat and cool their barns — it will be another hit to the farmers’ bottom line,” Boxall said.

Boxall said the rising costs from the tax will be hard to manage.

Scheer reacts

Regina Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Scheer was on Wednesday’s Evan Bray Show, and the former Conservative leader also voiced his opposition to the amendment of what he called a “common sense” bill.

“We see the grocery store prices every time we go in there. We know that families are struggling and a piece of low-hanging fruit that the government could do to bring those prices down would be to remove the carbon tax off of the inputs that farmers need,” Scheer said.

Scheer said the bill is supposed to give farmers a similar carveout to that given to people who use heating oil to heat their homes in Atlantic Canada.