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Carbon price exemption for farm gas clears Commons

Bill C-234 next headed to Senate

Reading Time: 3 minutes Legislative amendments that would exempt farmers’ eligible purchases of natural gas and propane from federal carbon pricing are now en route to Canada’s Senate. Bill C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for the southern Ontario riding of Huron-Bruce, passed third reading for adoption in the House of Commons on […] Read more

Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole speaks at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Nov. 19, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

Conservatives’ new climate plan puts price on carbon

New poll ranks carbon tax costs highest among farmers' springtime concerns

Reading Time: 4 minutes Canada’s ag sector is expected to serve as a carbon sink, a renewable fuel source and a beneficiary in the federal Conservative Party’s new climate change plan — which now includes putting a price on carbon. Party leader Erin O’Toole announced the new plan Thursday — after a long campaign of vehemently opposing such policy. […] Read more


A GSI grain drying system at Bashaw, Alta. (Grainews photo courtesy Western General)

Prairie provinces react to Bibeau’s questions on carbon price impact

Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa — The Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments continue attempts to convince the federal government’s carbon pricing program puts farmers at a disadvantage. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau recently suggested the carbon pricing system may not be disadvantaging farmers, questioning the impact of carbon pricing on agriculture, but saying she will continue to seek out more […] Read more

Finance Minister Bill Morneau appears at a pre-budget event March 14 at the Toronto Kiwanis Boys + Girls Clubs. (BMorneau.liberal.ca)

Farm groups see something for everyone in federal budget

Reading Time: 4 minutes Response so far from farm and agribusiness organizations to Tuesday’s pre-election budget suggests the federal government has managed to find at least one line item for everyone in the ag sector. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget pledges compensation for supply-managed sectors facing financial hits from international trade pacts, funding for a new federal food policy […] Read more


"The world is going this way, and we have to do
our part,” says Dale Beugin. “Let’s do it in the most cost-effective way possible.”

The carbon tax

Farmers see themselves as the good guys in the carbon debate, with good reason. Is agriculture going to pay anyway?

Reading Time: 13 minutes It had been another frigid day in Manitoba, snow swirling as farmers and ranchers gathered at a downtown hotel, but once inside it didn’t take long for the temperature to rise. They’d gathered for Keystone Agricultural Producers annual general meeting, where one issue outpaced the rest — carbon pricing. It was standing room only, with […] Read more

Stubble on a harvested oat field near Winnipeg. (Shannon VanRaes photo)

Carbon price worries farmers, fertilizer makers

Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg/Toronto | Reuters — Canada’s plan to price carbon emissions may weaken the farm sector in one of the biggest grain-shipping countries, raising farmers’ costs and discouraging investment in fertilizer production, industry groups say. Ottawa this month promised a price on carbon emissions by 2018, and will let provinces choose a tax or cap-and-trade system. […] Read more