As governments continue to make climate policy one after another, some farmers are calling it a bigger threat than the ongoing weather ups and downs that they’ve historically managed to adapt to. Potential policy risk associated with climate mitigation isn’t limited to the resource sector but has significant financial implications as well.
“Climate change policy may be the biggest threat to Canadian agriculture…,” tweeted Alberta sugar beet farmer Cory Vanden Elzen on May 27.
He was responding to a CTV interview with professor Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. Speaking on how food inflation is limiting grocery options for Canadians, Charlebois also touched on the impact of climate on farmers.
Another response came from Glengarry County, Ontario, cash crop and cattle farmer Keith Wells who tweeted on the same day: “I fear climate change policy the most. Farmers have always had to deal with the weather. Sometimes it’s with us and sometimes it’s against us. That hasn’t changed since man planted his first seed. We will adapt.”
The most impactful policy issue is the carbon tax, but aside from that, other policies include the clean fuel standard, the progressive banning of gasoline-powered vehicles, and compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.
“It’s a bit disingenuous to actually believe that Ottawa is in a better position to tell farmers what to do,” Charlebois told The Epoch Times on May 30.
The agriculture industry has long said farmers are stewards of the land, and their livelihoods depend on the environment being conducive to farming.
“It’s kind of discouraging to see that many of our policies that we have, we’re not even sure if any changes that we’re hoping to see are measurable. And so that’s really I think, where farmers are coming from here,” Charlebois said.
Improving Policy-Making
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) published a report in May on “developing environmental policy with small business in mind.”
The first of 10 principles in the report states, “Environmental policies should support the principle that it is possible to grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time.”
The report was based on a survey of CFIB members which showed that the policy eliciting the strongest opposition (85 percent) was the carbon tax rising from $50 to $170 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.
Proposed legislation Bill C-234 would eliminate the carbon tax on barn heating and grain drying. One of its proponents, Senator Rob Black, told parliamentarians on May 9 that it offers relief to farmers without compromising environmental goals.
Black said the carbon tax added an estimated 22 percent to the cost of drying grain.
“Farmers are price-takers not price-makers,” Black said. “They are subject to the impacts of the market, the same as everyone else.”
In its recommendation on the carbon tax and climate policy writ large, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) said, “No climate policy should have the effect of directly or indirectly negatively impacting food security” and “governments must strive to achieve greater consistency in climate change policies in order to reduce impacts on agricultural producers.”
The CFA is in support of Bill C-234, which would add natural gas and propane to the list of fuels exempt from the carbon tax.
