The House of Commons overwhelmingly passed a bill to make food cheaper and help farmers.
In fact, the House passed the bill twice.
But after two years, the bill still isn’t law, and that delay has cost families and farmers almost $100 million.
What’s stalling the democratic will of our elected representatives?
The Senate.
The bill is simple. The feds gave farmers an exemption on the carbon tax for diesel and gasoline. That helps farmers keep food prices down and compete globally. But the feds forgot to exempt the propane and natural gas farmers need to dry their grain and heat their barns.
So Conservative member of Parliament Ben Lobb introduced Bill C-234 back in February 2022 to fix that and extend the exemption to farmers’ natural gas and propane.
Bill C-234 would reduce the “financial burden the carbon tax places on all the necessary practices undertaken by farmers and ranchers like drying grain, irrigating crops, or heating and cooling livestock barns,” explains MP John Barlow, the vice-chair of Parliament’s agriculture committee.
It may seem like a small change, but the carbon tax is a big cost for farmers, even with the existing exemptions.
According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the carbon tax cost Canadian farmers an average of $14,000 in 2019. Trudeau has cranked up his carbon tax every year since. That means higher costs for farmers and higher grocery prices for Canadians.
The carbon tax on propane and natural gas will cost farmers $1 billion through 2030, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
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