Saskatchewan connection in new federal cabinet

There is a Saskatchewan connection in the new federal cabinet announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Saskatoon-raised Jonathan Wilkinson is the new minister of environment, which includes tackling the carbon tax issue.

Wilkinson was at one time the leader of the youth wing of the Saskatchewan New Democrats.

He also served as an adviser to Roy Romanow when he was premier.

Wilkinson went to the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree, and also won the Prairies Rhodes Scholar in 1988.

He moved to Vancouver in 1999 and worked in the environmental technology sector.

Wilkinson was appointed minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard on July 18, 2018.

He was first elected to Parliament in the 2015 federal election, representing the riding of North Vancouver.

Wilkinson can expect to hear soon from the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS), which issued a media release Wednesday saying that it wants the new cabinet to “exempt fuel used to dry grain from the Federal Carbon tax immediately.”

“Prairie producers have faced unprecedented challenges with damp harvest conditions, and millions of bushels of grains and oilseeds must be dried to prevent the crop from rotting,” APAS president Todd Lewis said in the release.

“These are totally unavoidable costs, and the imposition of the carbon tax has added millions of dollars in extra bills that are going to be hard to pay in a difficult year. On some bills the carbon tax is a surcharge of 40 per cent on the commodity cost of propane and natural gas. And then there’s GST on top.”