Saskatchewan pork producers applaud passage of Bill C-234 by House of Commons

Sask Pork is applauding the passage of Bill C-234 in the House of Commons and is hoping for quick ratification in the Senate.

A private member's bill that will create specific exemptions for farmers to Canada's carbon pricing scheme has passed in the House of Commons and will now move to Senate.

Mark Ferguson, the General Manager of Sask Pork, said the carbon tax has added an estimated one to three dollars per pig and the impact will only go up.

“Producers in Saskatchewan are not very supportive of the carbon tax generally. It adds costs to farms in terms of utilities and transportation and producers don't get any of the rebate back that does come back to people from the carbon so it's just a measure that adds costs to farms. The main way the carbon tax affects hog farms is heating for barns. Most barns in Saskatchewan would use natural gas to provide supplemental heat usually in the cold winter months that's required to keep the animal comfortable. There's not a good alternative to natural gas for heating barns. It's a very clean energy source, especially compared with other things we could be using to supply heat in barns,” explained Sask Pork General Manager Mark Ferguson.

“The impact of the carbon tax has basically been to increase our heating costs for propane and natural gas. The bill would exempt natural gas used as heating fuel in hog barns so I think it's a very good change, especially considering there's no viable alternative to natural gas to heat these barns. In terms of the private members bill, we're very supportive of it and we're very pleased to see it pass through the House of Commons. The next place this bill will be going is to the Senate so we'll be watching very closely to see what happens and we would hope all Senators will support this bill,” added Ferguson.

Ferguson noted that farmers pay their energy bills each month so the quicker this bill can move forward the better.