Ag Critic Says Liberal Budget Misses Key Areas That Could Help Pandemic Recovery

Apr 21, 2021

This week's Federal Budget shows Ottawa is planning to return some of the carbon tax money that farmers are paying for natural gas and propane.

Lianne Rood, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says for over a year now she's been calling on Minister Bibeau

to extend the carbon tax exemption in this area.

"This proposal to refund a portion of the carbon tax to farmers. Hey, it's a start! And you know, it takes some public pressure to get this government moving on things in agriculture. So, this is a start, and I'd like to see where exactly it's going to go? Hopefully we can get the full exemption for farmers for carbon tax on propane and natural gas."

Details on just how that carbon tax will be refunded will be announced later.

Rood says this week's Federal Budget has no real spending for Agriculture, to help with production.

She's disappointed that the money they are spending is not going to programs that would help ensure our food sovereignty and get money into the pockets of farmers.

"Farmers are looking for a hand up not a handout. And it would have been nice to see a little bit more money poured into programs that would help towards revenue generating industries like agriculture."

Overall, she says this is not a recovery plan for Canadians, this is the Liberal party's re-election plan.

"I think if the liberals were focused on getting our country back on track, that they would have targeted their stimulus towards revenue generating industries in this country. Like oil and gas, like agriculture, but instead, we see that this budget is actually extending the pandemic economic recession longer than necessary, which is only hurting Canadians."

Voting on the Liberal Budget is expected later this week.

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.