It's pretty clear now, the federal government has no intention of exempting fuels used for grain dryers and heating barns, from its carbon tax.
On Tuesday, Federal Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau met with reporters to talk about another incentive program. But the discussion quickly turned to other matters, including the exemption of fuels like propane and natural gas, used to dry grain. Many producers, especially those in Saskatchewan have complained the added tax, which rose by 50 percent in April, is having a devastating impact on their bottom line. But Minister Bibeau, doesn't buy into that. "Actually the data that we have received does not show that grain drying has a significant on the operation costs (for farmers). The impact is a very small percentage of the operation costs so this is why we are not moving forward with more specific relief."
When the case was first made to exempt grain drying fuels from the federal carbon tax, last winter, the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) quickly put together the figures it had from farmers about the impact the tax was having, especially after two very wet harvests. APAS president Todd Lewis says the minister's stand on this issue, is extremely disappointing. "Grain drying is one of the main tools farmers use to mitigate the changes to our operations around climate change. A situation like last fall, there was a huge amount of grain taken in and dried. When you tax the fuel we use for grain drying it is a real added cost to producers. It is not insignificant and it comes directly off our bottom line."
Lewis notes that farm income has dropped again in 2020. "We've seen recent Stats Canada numbers that farm income has dropped again this year. Our margins are shrinking and this tax is taking further away from those shrinking margins."
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