The federal carbon tax is set to increase April 1st, and, by the end of February, a farm delegation will be in Ottawa lobbying for an act to give farmers some tax exemptions.
Jake Ayre is vice-president of the Keystone Agriculture Producers, and he says it’s important they get legislation passed.
“There was Bill C-234 that was passed in the house and KAP spent a lot of time lobbying for that exemption because it dealt with livestock barns using natural gas or propane as well grain drying. It went to the senate and was unfortunately defeated.”
“We’re looking to get the Bill passed in the house and sent back to the senate as originally written.”
Ayre admits they’ve got a lot of lobbying work to do to get the politicians to understand all aspects of the legislation.
“I know one of the aspects not really understood was the livestock aspect where some of the senators out in eastern Ontario or Quebec that haven’t experienced a prairie winter where you have two-day old chicks going into a barn when it’s -40 and believe it or not, we have to heat that barn.”
“I know on April 1st that escalating carbon tax is going up again so producers will definitely feel that on their bottom-line.”