Bill C-234 would see farmers exempt from paying the carbon tax on propane and natural gas used on-farm for drying grain and heating barns.
Conservative Senate David Wells sponsored the bill in the Senate and says it received second reading last week and has been referred to the Finance and Agriculture Committee.
"They think that they're going to need in Finance perhaps two meetings, in Agriculture perhaps three or four meetings but we've been pushed to the end of our sitting. We won't be able to deliver a report back to the Senate and third reading until the fall. We were hoping to get it done earlier, but there are procedural things that others did that blocked us from doing that."
Wells says some of the opponents to the bill in the Senate, we assume are in step with the Liberal position. In my mind they've delayed it, They've said oh they need more consultation, I'm not ready to speak yet, and so they rag the puck.
Wells says at this point it's too late for Bill C-234 to pass through the Senate before the summer break on Friday.
He notes they'll probably be time for only one meeting in each Finance and Agriculture before the break.
"Over the summer, more work will be done, but it won't be committee work. There will be other research and preparation of speeches and that sort of thing. But really, we won't be able to get back and receive the committee reports until likely sometime in October. "
He adds that everyone knows that even if this bill goes through unamended, that's far too late in the season for any benefit to be accrued for farmers this fall.
To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with Senator Wells click on the link below.