Canadian Wheat Growers Disappointed in Supreme Court Ruling on Carbon Tax
In order to achieve net zero emissions in 2050, Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau’s government has decided to increase the carbon price by $15 per year starting in 2023.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers have expressed their strong disappointment in the ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada upholding the constitutionality of the carbon tax.
“The Liberal federal government’s plans to reduce greenhouse gases through taxation is ill conceived. They are placing a huge financial burden on family farms. With the ongoing increases in the carbon-tax moving to $170/tonne by 2030, I am concerned that many family farms will be taxed so high that the next generation will leave the industry,” said Gunter Jochum, President.
Research shows that Western Canadian grain farmers are already net-zero emitters. Steps taken by grain farmers through no/low-till seeding, equipment improvements such as the use of GPS and drones, seed varieties and highly productive inputs, have resulted in increased carbon sequestering and storage as well as increased production.
“The world commodity prices that Canadian farmers must sell their grain at will not offset the continuously increasing cost of the carbon tax. This is a losing proposition for all Canadian grain farmers,” the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association said in a statement released on March 25.
In order to achieve net zero emissions in 2050, Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau’s government has decided to increase the carbon price by $15 per year starting in 2023, raising it to $170 per tonne in 2030.
Farmers complain that the increase in taxes will make their produce globally uncompetitive. In the original plan announced in 2016, Trudeau’s Liberal Party government had imposed a carbon tax of $20 per tonne, raising it to $50 in 2022.
“All parts of the grain value chain are able to pass along the increased cost of the carbon-tax, except farmers. Farmers deal with world commodity prices and the carbon tax decreases their competitiveness in the world market,” said Jim Wickett, SK Director and Secretary-Treasurer.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is a voluntary farmer-run advocacy organization dedicated to developing public policy solutions that strengthen the profitability and sustainability of farming, and the agricultural industry as a whole.
