Professor Urges Ottawa to Freeze Carbon Tax on ‘Entire Food Industry’ to Protect Food Security

Professor Urges Ottawa to Freeze Carbon Tax on ‘Entire Food Industry’ to Protect Food Security
A man shops for food at a store in Toronto in a file photo. Federal research dated December 2024 indicates that a third of Canadians had to borrow money or run up credit card debt in order to buy food or pay other monthly expenses in the past 12 months. Reuters/Carlos Osorio
|Updated:
0:00

A professor and food policy expert is calling on Ottawa to temporarily suspend the carbon tax on “the entire food industry” beginning with farmers and food producers all the way up to the retail level.

Professor Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, says the pause must be put in place because little is known about how the carbon tax will impact the food industry’s competitiveness in Canada over time considering the higher fuel charges compared to U.S. competitors.