By Sarah Rae

Saskatchewan farmers petitioning against price of carbon pollution

Oct 6, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Local farmers are calling upon the agriculture industry to stand together against a national plan to price carbon.

Glaslyn-area farmer and director with the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Daryl Fransoo said a carbon tax would negatively impact farmers, and drive up food prices for Canadians.

“It will affect everything through the value chain from the farm, to the local craft brewers, right to the grocery store and to the kitchen table,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced the plan to impose a carbon price on provinces that won’t implement one themselves. The federal plan would set a price of $10 per tonne starting in 2018, increasing to $50 per tonne by 2022. The idea behind putting a price on carbon is that it would pressure industries to look for lower emission options.

Fransoo said a carbon tax would not only increase prices for local farmers and consumers, but threaten Canadian farmers’ ability to compete in an international market against countries that do not have a similar cost.

Fond Memories

North Stars' 20-year-olds reflect on junior hockey experience: Part 2

8h ago

Fond Memories

North Stars' 20-year-olds reflect on junior hockey experience: Part 1

Apr 18, 2024

Trades in Sask.

Skilled trades need not limited to building homes

Apr 17, 2024

He said there is always more people can do to benefit the environment, but this isn’t the way. Farmers in the northwest region already pay more to use energy-efficient machinery, almost all practice no-till farming to reduce their carbon footprints, and they use modern techniques to bring hybrid seeds to market that produce more food with less fertilizer, land and water.

A petition started by the Western Canadian Wheat Growers is meant to send a message to federal and provincial governments that farmers will not stand for the mandatory implementation of a carbon tax or similar carbon pricing plan. Fransoo said he’s already seen a lot of support from the public.

“We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of farmers and other folks sign up and say that this doesn’t make sense, we should not harm our farmers, we should not harm our agriculture industry and we should not have rising food costs because of it,” he said.

Fransoo said he is against carbon pricing in any form, even if an exemption was made for the agriculture industry.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.