The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling.
On Thursday, the SCOC ruled the federal carbon pricing law is constitutional.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote for the majority of the judges, which found the Act to be constitutional. They noted that global warming causes harm beyond provincial boundaries and that it is a matter of national concern under the "peace, order and good government" clause of the Constitution.
Canada implemented the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act in 2019 setting a minimum price on carbon emissions in provinces which don't have an equivalent provincial price.
The Provinces of Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta challenged that law taking it all the way to the Supreme Court.
APAS President Todd Lewis says they thought it was a fight well worth having adding that producers need to be heard when these regulations are made.
"Even the Parliament of Canada has concerns about how farmers are being treated with this carbon pricing model with the recent private member's bill speaking towards grain drying and barn heating."
APAS estimates the cost of producing an acre of wheat will increase by $12.50 by the time the carbon tax is fully implemented in 2030. That cost increase includes trucking, rail freight, and grain drying.
Lewis says they're disappointed noting the increased cost from the carbon tax all come off a producers bottom line and there's no way to recoup that.
"So it really will add up to being over 10 to $12 an acre on an average producer that will see those costs, and that's a very significant cost. Some years that's the profit margin."
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers expressed their strong disappointment in the ruling.
President Gunter Jochum says the Liberal 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."
He notes research shows that Western Canadian grain farmers are already net-zero emitters.
The Wheat Growers say 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.
Saskatchewan Director Jim Wickett says 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."
The National Farmer's Union, meantime, is applauding the Supreme Court decision.
NFU President Katie Ward says the NFU became an intervenor in the Supreme Court case, not because our organization endorses the federal government’s current greenhouse gas pricing measures, but because the NFU strongly supports the federal government’s onstitutional authority to create national policies to reduce emissions.
"This decision clears the way for strong federal leadership and enforcement powers coupled with ongoing federal, provincial, and territorial work rooted in the principles and traditions of co-operative federalism."
NFU member Glenn Wright says the facts are clear.
"We must accelerate the transition to clean energy and efficiency in order to mitigate the severity of the Climate Crisis, safeguard our food supply, and protect biodiversity, and we must turn our attention to creating opportunities through collaboration across multiple jurisdictions."
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