By farmnewsNOW Staff

Sask. farm group addresses Senate on carbon tax

May 8, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Saskatchewan’s opposition to a federally imposed carbox tax on the provinces was echoed Tuesday, as the President of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan addressed the Senate’s Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.
 
Todd Lewis spoke on the recent federal budget and carbon tax plans during his presentation today.
 
“We need to be very clear,” Lewis said in a statement. “The Carbon Backstop policy applies mainly to Saskatchewan, and to our members who make up a very large part of Canada’s agricultural industry.”
 
Lewis said he planned to remind the Senate that agricultural producers are unable to pass along any increased costs resulting from a carbon tax to consumers, and that farmers are not being recognized for the work they are already doing to reduce carbon emissions through carbon sequestration.
 
Lewis also noted the irony in Bill C-74’s definition of a farmer as ‘a person that carries on a farming business with a reasonable expectation of profit.’

“The provisions contained in this bill work to make that definition less credible,” Lewis said.
 
The provincial government recently launched a constitutional reference case in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal to challenge the federal government’s ability to impose its tax on the province.

 
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