A New Private Members Bill Tackles Carbon Tax Issues For Farmers

Feb 10, 2022

This week, a private members bill was tabled in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Ben Lobb.

Bill C-234 is calling for changes to the "Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act".

The bill would expand the definition of farm machinery and extend the exemption for qualifying farming fuel to natural gas and propane.

A similar bill, Bill C-206, passed through the House of Commons last year, but died in the Senate when the Federal Election was called last fall.

Andre Harpe is an Alberta Farmer and Chair of the Grain Growers of Canada and is very happy to see the bill come forward.

He says this is exactly the type of relief that our sector needs, the carbon tax effects all aspects of agriculture.

"It doesn't matter what we're growing, whether it's tomatoes, calves. Whether it's the dairy industry or whether it's a grain farmer, it affects us all equally. And, you know, it's a regressive tax, it doesn't help us at all."

The GGC says the successful passage of this bill would result in grain farmers no longer being penalized for on-farm activities - such as grain drying - that are required to properly store and market our products and ensure a sustainable food supply for everyone.

Harpe says the cost of the natural gas is actually pretty much almost the least amount on his bill.

"Because you know it gets back to, you know, that the carbon tax was huge. Plus, not only are we paying the carbon tax, but we get charged the GST on the carbon tax also. So we get a double whammy. We're talking thousands of dollars."

He notes it's going to take a while to go through the process.

Bill C-234 just received first reading in the House of Commons, but he's just happy that it's got started.

Harpe says the GGC is committed to being part of the solution and helping lead the conversation when it comes to the environment and climate change.

"By moving forward with these practical amendments to the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, our farmer members will have the ability to redirect these crucial dollars towards practical initiatives to further lower emissions and sequester carbon."

GGC will be working with Parliamentarians across all parties to ensure that this Bill moves forward through the legislative process in a timeline that reflects its urgency for Canadian farmers.

The Grain Growers of Canada will be working with Parliamentarians across all parties to ensure that this Bill moves forward through the legislative process in a timeline that reflects its urgency for Canadian farmers.

Click here to see more...

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”