OTTAWA — A carbon-tax exemption for grain-drying and barn-heating dodged a bullet in the Senate Nov. 7 as the majority of senators defeated an amendment by Trudeau appointees that was likely to have doomed Bill C-234 to a kind of parliamentary limbo.
The private member’s bill, which was passed seven months ago by all parties in the House of Commons, except the minority Trudeau Liberals, is now expected to proceed to a third and final Senate vote on Thursday, Nov. 9. If the Senate passes the bill in original form during that vote, it will proceed to Royal Assent and become law.
But the C-234 cliffhanger isn’t over just yet. Last-minute attempts could still be made to amend the bill before the final vote, and if successful, would effectively doom the bill to further review in the House of Commons. At that point, the governing Liberals could tie it up indefinitely.
Senator Donald Plett, leader of the Official Opposition Conservatives in the Senate and a supporter of the original bill, recently expressed concern that more amendments might yet be proposed by the bill’s opponents to trigger that outcome.
The recent amendment rejected by the Senate was contained in a committee report. It would have eliminated the bill’s carbon-tax relief for the heating of barns and greenhouses, leaving in place the exemption for farm-based grain-drying. Greenhouses already receive an 80 % carbon-tax exemption, but other agricultural structures receive none, including chicken barns and mushroom-growing facilities. The bill would level the playing field with an across-the-board exemption for all of them.
Source : Farmersforum