Senators voted by a 44-40 margin yesterday to shorten the sunset clause on carbon price exemption bill C-234 to three years from eight.
Senator Yuen Pau Woo introduced the amendment on Dec. 7, saying it would align it with the deadline on the Liberal government’s heating oil carbon price exemption.
This is the second amendment to Bill C-234, An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The first amendment removed fuels for heating barns and greenhouses from exemptions proposed in the bill.
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Farm groups and government officials aligned with the bill have expressed concerns that, since the bill must now be returned to the House of Commons for further debate, it will be delayed until it dies on the order paper. Senators aligned against the bill have been accused of using delay tactics to try to kill a bill the Liberal government doesn’t like.
Today, the National Farmers Union (NFU) released a statement calling on political parties to prioritize and pass the bill.
In the statement, former NFU vice-president Glenn Wright said that while the NFU supports a price on carbon in general, farmers don’t have viable alternatives for drying grain.
“Because farmers are so climate-dependent—so vulnerable—it is in farmers’ interests that Canada and all nations reduce emissions as quickly as possible. Canada’s pollution-pricing system is a crucial part of that effort,” he said. “In this one case, however, because there are no alternative grain drying options for farmers, a temporary exemption is the right policy.”
He also said an amendment to remove an exemption on fuels for building heating creates a “pressing need” for financing and incentives for farmers to adopt more efficient heating options.
“The NFU recognizes that farmers can improve building efficiency and switch heating sources to clean technologies like heat pumps, but these renovations are capital intensive and farmers will need extensive financial support to decarbonize the heating of barns and greenhouses,” he said.
–updated Dec. 12 to add by how many years the sunset clause is reduced.
—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AGCanada.com. She writes from southeastern Manitoba.
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