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Letter: Farmers need a carbon tax break, too

Letter-writer encourages the passing of Bill C-234, which would provide a carbon tax break for grain drying, barn heating
Letter to the Editor
typewriter pexels-cottonbro-3945337 (From Pexels by Cottonbro)
From Pexels by Cottonbro

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a op-ed by Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré. You can read that opinion piece here.

Only three per cent of Canadians use home heating oil, but nearly one in three Atlantic Canadians use oil to heat their homes and multiple polls have shown that Liberal fortunes were in peril after the carbon tax was implemented in Atlantic Canada earlier this year. 

Atlantic Liberal Minister Gudie Hutchings said the quiet part loud when she said, “Atlantic caucus was vocal” and other Canadians should “elect more Liberals” to have the same carbon tax exemption that Atlantic Canadians had. 

On Nov. 6, even the NDP voted with a Conservative motion to take the carbon tax off home heating for all Canadians, but the Liberals and Bloc Québécois voted against in order to keep the carbon tax. This at a time when a record two million food bank visits. 

The Parliamentary Budget Office report released on March 30 titled A Distributional Analysis of the Federal Fuel Charge under the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan shows that 60 per cent of Canadians are worse off under the carbon tax. It is even worse in Ontario, where 80 per cent of Canadians are worse off, with an average family paying $1,820 after accounting for the rebates. (Please see the full chart on Page 3 of the report.)

When you tax the farmers that grow the food and the truckers that transport the food, you raise the price of food. The governor of the Bank of Canada recently said that axing the carbon tax would drop the inflation rate by 0.6 per cent. Currently, the inflation rate is 3.8 per cent, well above the central bank target of two per cent. That means inflation has to drop by 1.8 per cent to hit the central bank target. 

Removing the carbon tax will take off 0.6 per cent, which is a third of the reduction needed in inflation. Inflation is caused by many reasons, some not in control of government and some within the control. The carbon tax is in the government’s control.

Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from natural gas and propane, which is used for grain drying and barn heating. The PBO said it would save farmers a billion dollars, but the Liberal senators are stalling the bill. 

Liberals should come clean and tell Canadians if they want to cost a billion dollars to the farmers and raise food prices. Also, if Liberals care about the environment, why did they cancel the public transit tax credit in 2017?

Abhishek Bansal
Milton