(Facebook/National Farmer's Union)

By Nigel Maxwell

Carbon tax

Farm group hopes no more time wasted in court over carbon tax

May 7, 2019 | 5:00 PM

The National Farmers Group (NFU) is applauding last week’s ruling by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, that the federal carbon tax does not violate any constitutional laws.

The NFU was among the group’s granted intervenor status in the province’s challenge of the federal carbon tax. Stewart Wells, the NFU’s second vice-president, said people are going to have to pay one way or the other, and he explained for the last 200 years people on the planet have been engaged in one big party.

“We have been extracting resources and burning fossil fuels and doing things that were making life better but we were not thinking at all about the clean up,” he said, adding part of the clean up now involves adopting this principle of polluter pay.

“Every dollar we waste on frivolous court challenges, are dollars that could have been spent to incentivize the right behaviour,” _{– NFU member Glenn Wright.}

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In its written decision, the court stated: “The factual record presented to the court confirms that climate change is caused by anthropogenic green house gas. Wells said essentially the public has two options: do nothing and support the provincial premiers who are challenging the federal carbon tax in court, or support the planet.

“I’m on the tractor today trying to get sone seeding done and I recognize we need a stable and predictable climate if we are going to continue to produce food in this country,” he said.

Wells further explained when comparing the small amount of money to paid through the Pollution Pricing Act, to the hundreds of millions and billions of dollars spent worldwide relocating people out of flood zones, and for various other natural disasters, the Act is the smaller amount of money. Wells added the costs of court battles are problematic, and drive a wedge between people and the planet.

“These provincial premiers are creating a lose-lose situation instead of what should be a win-win situation where everyone is engaged in the conversation of how we are going to help clean up the planet, how we are going to change the things we do, large and small, in order to have a sustainable future,” he said.

Some groups who have spoken out against the carbon tax, including the Agricultural Producers Association od Saskatchewan, claim farmers will incur more costs as a result of the tax. NFU member Glenn Wight is a grain farmer in the Delisle area and said changes to improve sustainability will make farming in Western Canada more profitable.

“Moving toward minimum input and no tillage are some of the practices I have adopted and what I have found is my net return is the same but in some cases you have a lot less risk and you have less financial burden when you are laying out at the start of the year,” he said.

Wright echoed Wells’ concern with the court battles, and said his heart was broken when he heard the Saskatchewan government planned to take their fight all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“Every day we spend delaying action and every dollar we waste on frivolous court challenges, are dollars that could have been spent to incentivize the right behaviour,” he said.

—

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell