The Western Canadian Wheat Growers is expressing disappointment in the ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada upholding the constitutionality of the carbon tax.
“The Liberal federal 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,” said President Gunter Jochum.
In a news release, the organization says that research shows that Western Canadian grain farmers are already net-zero emitters. The group notes that 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.
Wheat Growers says that the world commodity prices that Canadian farmers must sell their grain at will not offset the continuously increasing cost of the carbon tax, adding this is a losing proposition for all Canadian grain farmers.
“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,” said Jim Wickett, SK Director and Secretary-Treasurer.
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