Prairie farmers are dealing with a wet harvest that is leading to increased fossil fuel use, and the premier of Saskatchewan wants to see the “entire” federal pollution-pricing regime put on hold as a result.
But opinions differ whether his proposed fix is the right one for the people of Saskatchewan, and elsewhere in the Prairies, where heavy rains in September and October meant that grain harvested was moist and will need to be dried out by using natural gas or propane-fired drying machines.
The leader of Saskatchewan’s NDP opposition, for example, has floated an alternative plan to rebate farmers directly. The NDP idea was endorsed by a representative from an association of corn growers, in comments to National Observer.
Even so, on Tuesday, Scott Moe told reporters he had asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “put that entire (carbon-tax) program on pause,” because “there’s some farmers that have some very large carbon-tax bills that are coming on their grain-drying costs.”
The premier emerged stone-faced from his meeting with Trudeau in the prime minister's West Block office on Parliament Hill, saying, “I came out here in good faith” but that, following the meeting, “What I do see is that we’re going to see more of the same from this prime minister.”
Click here to see more...