It sounds a little counter-intuitive admits the Green Party’s agriculture critic, but it’s true. The party devoted to saving the environment is calling for a break on the carbon tax for some of Canada’s long-suffering farmers.
After a rainy year in the Prairies, wheat farmers have been left with the soggiest harvest in almost a decade and adding insult to injury is an extra charge for the federal carbon tax on fuel used to dry the grain.
Kate Storey, an organic wheat farmer in Manitoba who also serves as the Green Party’s agriculture critic, says this tax break would more closely resemble “disaster relief” than anything else and it’s not going to make the Green Party any less green.
Storey also called for the government to invest in new energy-efficient grain drying technology and new crop varieties that allow for a shorter season. But that’s a long-term solution and, for now, the Green Party wants the government to rebate farmers for the out-sized costs of the previous year.
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