Wheat growers ask for carbon tax increase to be cancelled

The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is calling on the feds to cancel the move to increase the federal carbon tax

On April 1, the federal carbon tax will increase from $20 a tonne to $30 a tonne. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is asking for the federal government to cancel this increase.

“The carbon tax is an ineffective policy in our opinion and should be scrapped all together but, with the recent events that are going on, we implore the government to not increase it at the very least,” said Daryl Fransoo, a Saskatchewan director with the association.

The carbon tax hits farmers hard and has been a tough sell in Western Canada from the beginning. This tax is an additional burden on the agricultural industry, said Fransoo.

The carbon tax “takes money out of what we can do to accomplish the goal that (the government) wants to be done with the carbon tax. Farmers are generally environmentalists by trade and we're doing all the right things that (the government) wants us to do. So, to tax farmers even more than the (government) is right now is foolish in my opinion,” he told Farms.com.

Since farmers cannot pass this cost on, it hits their bottom line. And with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, additional costs are not what farmers need, said Fransoo.

“In regard to the situation that the economy faces right now with COVID-19, this is the first time we've asked for (the cancellation). We've been waiting on the sidelines to a certain extent seeing what (the government) was going to come out with. We understand that it's absolutely a busy time with government right now, so we didn't want to bombard them with more things,” he said.

The association believes that simply cancelling the increase would be positive for everyone, said Fransoo.

“It's a pretty easy one for the government to do and … it would help every citizen in Canada, quite frankly,” he said.

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