Federal carbon pricing set to begin in 2018
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
A Saskatchewan-based farm organization is part of a coalition that’s against the federal carbon tax, which is scheduled to be implemented in 2018.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers joined The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and AxeTheCarbonTax.ca to form the Manitobans Against Carbon Taxes Coalition.
The federal government plans to charge provinces $10 per tonne of carbon. That number will increase to $50 per tonne of carbon in 2022. The charges will only apply to provinces without a system of their own that meets the federal government’s criteria.
The government estimates a $10 per tonne price is about 2.3 cents per litre of gasoline, 2.7 cents per litre of diesel and 1.5 cents per litre of propane.
But additional costs incurred by farmers will be felt by consumers, according to the farm group.
“Grain growers in Manitoba are a good news story for the environment, including as a carbon sink,” Gunter Jochum, Manitoba director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and grain farmer near St. François Xavier, said in a July 13 release.
“A carbon tax, whether direct or indirect, would drive up costs for farmers and hurt the entire agriculture sector, from the field right to the kitchen table.”
Other provinces against carbon tax
Residents of Manitoba aren’t the only ones to voice their displeasure with the federal government’s carbon tax legislation.
A recent Angus Reid poll suggested 71 per cent of Saskatchewan residents and 68 per cent of Albertans are against carbon taxes.
And in 2016, Wyatt Gorrill, a producer from Bulyea, Sask., carved the words “Carbon Tax” into his field and surrounded the words with a circle and diagonal line, similar to a no smoking sign.