The group’s president made the announcement at its AGM yesterday
By Kate Ayers
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) is applying for intervenor status in the federal carbon tax reference case in the province.
Todd Lewis, APAS president, made the announcement at the group’s annual general meeting yesterday.
“APAS members believe that their perspective on the federal carbon backstop policy needs to be heard,” Lewis said in an organization release yesterday.
“The impacts of the proposed federal carbon pricing scheme will add direct costs to our operations without helping to solve the problems with carbon emissions.”
As an intervenor, APAS will make the case that, rather than solving the problem, the carbon tax will increase farmers’ costs and could make them less adaptive to the effects of climate change.
The fed’s plan also fails to acknowledge the critical role that agriculture plays in sequestering and storing carbon, the release said.
“Farmers and ranchers’ entire businesses are based on managing the carbon cycle, and every year we sequester millions of tonnes of carbon in our cropland and pastures,” Lewis said in the release.
Saskatchewan is home to 43 per cent of Canada’s cropland and 35 per cent of the grassland.
“Governments need to recognize that biological management of carbon is more important than tax policy in solving the problem,” he added.
APAS also argues that the federal and provincial governments’ shared jurisdiction over the environment should not outweigh their shared jurisdiction over agriculture, the release said.
“For decades, federal and provincial governments have worked together to build our agricultural sector, and we think that this cooperation must continue for the good of all Canadians and for our environment,” Lewis said.
The APAS AGM continues until Thursday at the Queensbury Convention Centre in Regina.
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