Thoughts on Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (June 6, 2023)

Honourable senators, farmers and food producers everywhere are feeling severe financial pressures. We recently saw Dutch farmers flying their country’s flag upside down to protest their government’s plan to cut fertilizer use in half. The protests generated widespread support as people finally focused on what “farm to table” really means.

Farmers feed the world. Our farmers feed the world.

Arbitrary rules to reduce fertilizer usage or taxes on farm activities will only push high food prices even higher and lead to food insecurity in developed countries and continued shortages in the poorest. Food insecurity is not acceptable in the age of plenty. My colleague Senator Burey just last week spoke very eloquently on this issue. We have a responsibility to ensure that people do not go hungry globally because of some ill-considered policies here at home.

These concerns I have raised relate directly to Bill C-234. There is growing concern about the future cost to farmers and consumers of Ottawa’s approach to net-zero policies and the impact on production and yield, the cost of land and equipment, the movement of grain and what this all means for the global supply of food or global hunger.

Farmers have long known about the cyclical nature of weather and that extreme weather linked to climate change can affect crops, so many of their practices have been revolutionized to respond. Farmers are the stewards of the land and their livelihoods depend on the wise use of water, land and air. They are, in a sense, the original environmentalists.

But the cost of the carbon tax on agriculture has been exorbitant and disproportionate, putting many smaller operations on the auction block or out of business. There have been some exemptions for on-farm use for gasoline and diesel fuel, but this bill seeks to expand that to other qualifying farm fuels like propane and natural gas. This is crucial, as it provides much‑needed relief from the overwhelming cost of the carbon tax on such things as heating or cooling the barns where they keep animals, climate mitigation and, most importantly, grain drying. You can have a great crop, but if it rains at the wrong time, the crop degrades literally overnight — along with its value.

Farmers are not asking for a handout; they put their own money where their hearts live. In my own province, for example, more than $11 billion will be invested by farmers this year across the province to get their crops into the ground in 2023, according to a report from Economic Development Regina. The report takes into account the cost of seed, treatment, fertilizer and labour to reach that $11-billion number. Seeding is without question Saskatchewan’s largest annual megaproject. When you consider the impact of this work extending across our economy, it’s impossible to overstate the value to our province and country.

There are over 34,000 farms in Saskatchewan comprising more than 43% of the cropland in Canada. Saskatchewan generated more than $18.4 billion in international sales last year and contributed over $82 billion to the province’s gross domestic product in 2022.

Colleagues, the cost of the carbon tax and the clean fuel tax to farmers is millions upon millions of dollars a year, and these costs move all along the supply chain as food makes it from farm to fork. In the end, the consumer pays more. It is an inevitability unless we do something about it, here in this chamber, before we rise for the summer so that our farmers can take advantage of this much-needed bit of relief before this year’s harvest.

There are many ways to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture, and farmers are already well ahead of the game. Colleagues, don’t let this bill languish and die on the Order Paper or delay it to another session or another year. Farmers quite literally cannot face another season with the increases to the costs of their operations. Please do not hinder the relief for Canadians who feed this country and the world.

This bill came to us with multiparty support from the other place, with the Conservatives, New Democrats, Bloc Québécois and Green Party all voting in favour. Three of the four parties on that list, of course, support the tax on carbon, and yet they still voted in favour of this bill. I think that sends a message about the necessity of this legislation.

For our farmers, our ranchers and our growers, but also for everyone in this country who is living through one of the greatest periods of food inflation this country has ever seen, please take the right stand. Combatting climate change is important and we are all working diligently, but the burden should never fall disproportionately on the shoulders of those who are at the core of our economy and who feed us. Let’s help them fight food insecurity for all of our sakes.

Thank you.