Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and a fierce Wall Street critic, released a broad plan that she said would make it easier for small farmers to survive in the face of growing corporate consolidation in the rural economy.

She singled out several big agriculture corporations, naming Tyson Foods, Bayer-Monsanto and Dow-DuPont, and said the Bayer-Monsanto merger should not have been approved. Under her plan, regulators would review “anti-competitive” agricultural mergers and break up integrated businesses that control many different levels of the farming chain and markets.

“We can make better policy choices  – and we can begin by leveling the playing field for America’s family farmers,” Warren wrote in a Medium blog post outlining her proposal.

Warren released the plan ahead of a campaign trip to Iowa, a farm state that kicks off the Democratic presidential nominating contest in February 2020. During her visit, she will participate in a Democratic policy forum on rural issues as the party searches for ways to reverse Republican President Donald Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton in rural areas in 2016.

Earlier this month, Warren also proposed breaking up big tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook to promote competition in the technology sector. She has made her populist economic message the heart of her campaign in a growing Democratic field of contenders, arguing the economy is rigged for corporations and the wealthy.

“Bad decisions in Washington have consistently favoured the interests of multinational corporations and big business lobbyists over the interests of family farmers,” Warren said in her agricultural proposal.

“Mergers mean that farmers have fewer and fewer choices for buying and selling, while vertical integration has meant that big agribusinesses face less competition throughout the chain and thus capture more and more of the profits,” she said.

Warren’s plan also would end “contract farming” by conglomerates, create a national right-to-repair law that allows farmers to repair their own equipment or take it to a mechanic of their choice instead of an authorized agent, and establish country-of-origin rules to require beef and pork producers to label where their livestock was raised and slaughtered.

— John Whitesides is a Reuters political correspondent in Washington, D.C.

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Mary Robinson, past-president of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture, was elected president Wednesday at the CFA’s AGM in Ottawa. She replaces Ron Bonnett, the organization’s president since 2010.

Keith Currie, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, was elected as first vice-president; Chris van den Heuvel, former president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, was elected second vice-president.

“I am looking forward to engaging key stakeholder and political decision makers on why the agri-food sector is the leading economic engine of Canada,” said Robinson, who has also previously chaired the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

“It’s critical that investments in agriculture is a priority for the Canadian government. Investments in rural Canada and agriculture benefit not only rural Canada but the nation as a whole.”

The CFA, in a release Thursday, described Robinson as “a force in farm politics for many years and an exceptional leader whose collaboration skills are highly recognized amongst the agricultural stakeholder community.”

Robinson is a member of P.E.I.’s Robinson family and a partner in the Eric C. Robinson Inc. group of farm businesses.

A certified crop advisor, she manages Island Lime, a Robinson operation providing lime, gypsum, custom lime and fertilizer application and other farm services.

Robinson, who also currently sits on the board of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity, received the P.E.I. Women’s Institute’s Women in Agriculture award in 2017.

As first and second vice-presidents, Currie and van den Heuvel respectively replace Norm Hall, former president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, and Marcel Groleau, president of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post CFA elects new chief appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I would like to acknowledge my sincere appreciation to all the (KAP) staff, executive, board and the members of KAP who have offered support and guidance as we worked through many policies in order to assure that Manitoba farmers’ voices have been heard by our elected officials,” Mazier wrote in his resignation letter Friday. “It has been truly a privilege to serve as KAP’s president.”

Mazier farms near Justice, Man., which is in the Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa riding now represented by Conservative MP Bob Sopuck.

Sopuck announced May 7 he wouldn’t run in the next federal election, which is set for Oct. 21, 2019, unless the government calls one sooner.

Mazier is in his fourth and final year as KAP president. His term was up at the end of the year.

KAP’s bylaws allow its board of directors to appoint a president if the incumbent is unavailable. It has two vice-presidents: Bill Campbell of Minto and Jill Verwey of Portage la Prairie.

The association’s next board meeting is July 31.

“I never ever thought I’d be running for MP,” Mazier said Friday. “I often felt sorry for MPs. I saw how they got caught between party… at times they seemed conflicted.”

But Mazier said he changed his mind after being asked by three or four party members to consider seeking the nomination.

Mazier said they pointed to his farm policy experience, network of contacts and name recognition.

“I am interested in policy,” Mazier said. “I’ve always been hardwired that way, I guess.”

But Mazier acknowledged partisanship isn’t his strong point. KAP is explicitly non-partisan since its job is representing farmers to elected officials of all parties and governments.

Mazier took that role so seriously he wasn’t a member of any political party, including the Conservative Party of Canada.

Party politics in recent years has become chippier. Asked how he’ll handle that if elected, he said: “I will stay true to myself. I will criticize the policy and stay away from the personal stuff. I’ll debate ideas and policies all day long.

“I think that’s what people want to see. I think they’re getting kind of tired of it (personal attacks).”

If Mazier, 54, wins the nomination and election, he expects to leave farming.

“I see this as a career change,” he said. “I’m an all-in type of person.”

Mazier has a lot of ideas to pursue if elected, including getting better cellular and internet service for his riding.

“I am so tired of hearing ‘I don’t have cell phone coverage or I don’t have rural infrastructure for internet,'” he said. “I want a cable, fibre optics going to every community in my constituency. Full stop. I don’t care what that it takes, especially this constituency. It’s so remote and rural.”

Water regulations, land-use and the environment are also top priorities, he said.

As for highlights while at KAP, Mazier says it was the people.

Another was being part of the coalition that helped get Bill C-49, the Transportation Modernization Act, passed into law.

“Getting those amendments, just watching the whole industry and all the different farm groups actually working together under a coalition,” he said.

Agriculture has often been divided on issues, Mazier added. “We have definitely moved forward as far as trying to understand each other as an industry in different commodity groups.”

KAP has always prided itself on co-operating with others, he said.

“We were not going to take our ball and go home…” he said. “We always try to have that conversation, as awkward as it might be… if we agree to disagree that’s OK, but where are the common points? That strategy has served us well over the four years.”

Mazier also served four years as a KAP vice-president and served almost two years as a school trustee.

Several other KAP leaders have pursued party politics, including Manitoba Progressive Conservative MLAs Ian Wishart (2011-present) and Jack Penner (1988-2007), as well as Marlene Cowling, who served as a Liberal MP for Dauphin-Swan River (1993-97).

The post KAP president Mazier resigns to seek Tory nomination appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The United States is Canadian agriculture’s biggest customer generating more than $50 billion in annual revenues. Terminating NAFTA, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to do, would be a shock, but overall not “particularly severe,” Gifford, who retired from the federal government in 2000, but still consults on trade, told the annual Fields on Wheels conference Dec. 15 in Winnipeg.

• Read more: Export-oriented farmers need to boost lobby effort
• Read more: Complaints about Canadian grading of U.S. wheat justified: Gifford

That’s because Gifford expects the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement (CUSTA) to kick in. It predates NAFTA and has the same agricultural trade rules.

“So basically there would be no impact on Canadian agriculture for all intents and purposes,” Gifford said. “We revert basically to the status quo, not something worse than the status quo.”

Moreover, it’s likely Canada and Mexico would continue to operate under NAFTA, giving Canada preference to the Mexican market over the U.S., he said.

There’s no guarantee the U.S. won’t withdraw from CUSTA, but Gifford thinks it won’t, given the U.S. focus on getting concessions from Mexico.

In the absence of NAFTA and CUSTA World Trade Organization rules, with most favoured nation tariffs, would apply.

The Canadian dollar would weaken, adding to Canadian export competitiveness, he said.

“For most (agricultural) sectors it is not going to be particularly severe because our tariffs are relatively low under the WTO and the same for the U.S.,” Gifford said. “But there are going to be some sectors and some products that are going to be adversely affected because they are a tariff peak.”

Exports of fresh Canadian mushrooms would face American tariffs of more than 30 per cent, Gifford said. Canadian processing potatoes exports to the U.S. would also suffer.

“Cattle, hogs and pork basically wouldn’t see much change in their treatment going into the U.S. because cattle and hogs are free (of duties) and (duties) on most pork products are relatively low,” Gifford said. “Pork carcasses I think are free.”

However, beef trade could be a problem due to tariffs, but since there’s now two-way trade both countries have an incentive to work out a deal, he said.

“I’ve got to stress the bulk of the Canadian and U.S. tariffs are something in the order of four per cent,” Gifford said. “They are not high. But there are examples in both countries where we’ve got tariff peaks both countries will have problems with.”

Canada exports four million tonnes of wheat to the U.S., but overall Western Canada’s grain customer base is diversified, Gifford said.

“I would argue western Can­adian agriculture today is far better able to adjust to the shock of the termination of NAFTA and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement because of what’s happened in the interim,” he said. “We have become a lot more efficient since those negotiations concluded. Whether it is in the red meat-processing sector or whether it is in the oilseed-processing sector, we have become world scale… it’s certainly not as bad as if we had not made changes over the last years. Clearly, there is no question that the preferred outcome in the NAFTA renegotiation is to basically do no harm and add some improvements where we can.”

While the Americans are pushing to end supply management, especially for dairy production, the U.S. is equally committed to protecting its sugar industry, Gifford said. What American dairy farmers really want is more access to Canada’s market and more secured access following recent Canadian rule changes that blocked imports of U.S. milk protein isolate.

Tariff rate quotas are the solution, he said. They allow a fixed volume of imports, followed by higher tariffs to block further imports.

Canadian milk production accounts for 90 per cent of the domestic market, Gifford said. The market has been growing so Canadian farmers can allow more American milk in, he said.

“There are solutions to this short of destroying supply management,” Gifford said.

Canadian supply management is valued at about $40 billion, which makes getting rid of it difficult, he later told reporters (see sidebar).

Canada also wants more secured access to the U.S. cattle, beef, hog and pork markets, Gifford said. It doesn’t want country-of-origin labelling (COOL) to return.

Gifford declined to speculate on the outcome of the NAFTA talks. Trump isn’t the only wild card either. These negotiations are unique in that agriculture is not “front and centre,” he said.

“It’s not the issue that’s going to dominate the negotiation throughout.”

The main issues are rules of origin, especially around autos and parts, dispute settlement, buy American provisions, and a clause to end NAFTA after five years unless signatories take action to continue it, he said.

The post NAFTA ag deal while keeping supply management possible appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Speaking from Beijing, canola council president Jim Everson emphasized the importance of the Chinese market for Canadian canola producers and processors.

“We are just at the end of what we think is a very successful mission for the canola industry and promoting canola here in China,” Everson said. “This agreement signals the start of a new relationship with Chinese importers based on co-operation to support mutually beneficial trade.”

• Read more: Canola Council of Canada completes successful China trip

The memorandum includes provisions such as communicating on regulations affecting trade and working together to facilitate industry meetings and exchanges. It was signed by the Canola Council of Canada and the China Chamber of Commerce of Import and Export of Foodstuffs, Native Produce and Animal By-Products.

“The memorandum of understanding is one that is a co-operative arrangement to share information back and forth between the canola council and the CFNA… to co-operate in different events that we might be holding in Canada and they might be holding in China,” Everson said. “There were no commitments at all with respect to volume or any kind of guarantee from that point of view.”

The memorandum will also help the council and its counterparts in China fully understand the impact of Chinese policies, laws and regulations, he said.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay witnessed the signing and participated in several of the canola industry events organized by the council, Everson added.

“We are very thankful for the leadership that Minister MacAulay has taken in bringing a large number of Canadian ag representatives here to China for our mission here and particularly for participating in a number of the events in support of the canola industry while he was here,” he said.

The trade mission included the first-ever Canola Dialogue, a half-day event bringing together more than 60 industry and government representatives, including the Chinese inspection agency, its Agriculture Ministry, Commerce Ministry, biotechnology regulators and major importers.

China’s crush capacity has increased in recent years, but Chinese buyers are still apt to favour soybeans over canola for livestock feed. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, China is expected to import 97 million tonnes of soybeans in 2017-18.

Bruce Jowett, vice-president of market development for the council, said the organization also held two events in Guangzhou during the trade mission, the first of which promoted canola meal.

“What they were able to do is share with the feed manufacturers… the role that canola meal can play in a ration for swine. I think it was pretty new news to those in attendance,” he said.

The second event in that city promoted the nutritional benefits of canola oil.

“It was primarily a media group that was in attendance, we’ve already seen up to eight stories being published on oil and the benefits of it, we also had the minister do some food preparation with a chef, just to show the ease and some of the attributes,” Jowett said. “It will increase the awareness of oil in this important market.”

While the perennial issue of blackleg was also raised during the trade mission, Everson said both Canada and China continue to research the issue and that trade will continue under existing terms until at least 2020.

“The subject came up, but really only in terms of going over again or repeating the commitment that we have each made… to taking efforts jointly to mitigate against any kind of concerns with blackleg being transferred from Canada to China,” he said, adding an additional memorandum of understanding is in the works regarding the issue.

The United States remains Canada’s largest export market for canola, but China is the second-largest export market for canola and canola products worth $2.7 billion in 2016.

China imported 4.8 million tonnes of Canadian canola in 2016, including 3.5 million tonnes of seed, 600 thousand tonnes of oil and 660 thousand tonnes of meal.

The post Organization in Canada, China, sign memorandum appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

However, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool president E.K. Turner told his annual meeting that while some farmers might diversify into feed grains, specialty crops, livestock and poultry, “there simply isn’t enough income from the alternatives available for all of us to make a living on the farm today at existing costs and prices.”

At the annual meeting of Manitoba Pool Elevators, Canada Grains Council secretary-general Don Dever said farmers would have to tailor production to the market. “If we continue to produce wheat, or any other grain, without production guidelines, no marketing agency we can conceive will be able to merchandise our total production.”

In a major policy speech in Ontario, federal Agriculture Minister H.A. (Bud) Olson said that while there would be no rigid controls on agriculture, voluntary programs could be developed to compensate farmers if they agreed to limit production, similar to programs in the U.S.

Harvest had not gone well — in another report Olson announced a plan for cash advances against the large amount of grain left unthreshed by an early winter.

On the same page was a story that may not have gone over well with cash-strapped farmers — grain workers in Vancouver were seeking a $1 per hour which would result in an overtime rate of $9 per hour.

The post Carryover and low quotas lead to Chinchillas? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That latter hinges on the plan to cut carbon emissions by up to 2.6 million tonnes by 2022 working.

But there’s a possibility it might not be implemented, or at least not fully. The federal government says Manitoba’s flat $25-a-tonne carbon is only half of what’s required by 2022.

Instead of fighting Ottawa’s plan for a $10-a-tonne carbon tax starting next year and rising to $50 by 2022, Premier Brian Pallister wisely opted to develop his own strategy, which as he said at its unveiling at Oak Hammock Marsh Oct. 27, is “much, much, much more” than just a carbon tax.

Only half the targeted reductions stem from the tax.

“Our goal is to be Canada’s cleanest, greenest and most climate-resilient province,” Pallister told reporters atop Ducks Unlimited’s education centre overlooking the marsh.

“The environment and economy aren’t separate entities. They go together. And you cannot focus on one while ignoring the other.”

• Read more: Manitoba carbon plan targets lower rates
• Read more: Farm fuel to be exempt from Manitoba carbon tax

Manitoba’s long-awaited carbon tax and green plan offers a comprehensive, in-depth, integrated approach to one of the most challenging issues of our time, complicated by the fact that our world — and for the citizens of wealthy nations, our lifestyles — run on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.

Pallister, who calls himself an environmentalist, and says climate change is real and affecting the world today, seems sincere. He isn’t worried his plan might not show immediate results.

“I am concerned that it has taken a long time for governments around the world to get at this problem,” he said sparking applause among civic and industrial leaders present for the announcement. “I am concerned that we don’t look at short-term, quick-fix solutions… pretending that’s going to change anything.

“I want us to have a plan that works over time. Some things do take time to evolve…”

The plan acknowledges governments have committed to cutting carbon before and failed, breeding cynicism.

“The goal must be actual, ongoing emissions reductions, not a false distant target never to be achieved,” the plan says.

“Our focus should therefore be on consistently reducing cumulative emissions over time.”

To ensure Manitoba sticks to its commitments, the government proposes to create an expert advisory commission “with an independent mandate to review our collective progress on the climate and green plan, assist with its implementation and give needed advice on next steps.”

The early reviews are good. Predictably Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president Dan Mazier welcomed the carbon tax exemption on farm fuel, as did the Manitoba Beef Producers.

The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association, which says grasslands play a big role in storing carbon, supports the plan.

But a climate change expert is also encouraged.

“I think it’s really exciting the Province of Manitoba is getting on board with serious climate action,” Ian Mauro, associate professor of geography at the University of Winnipeg and co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre, said in an interview Oct. 27. “I think the opportunity to have a Conservative-led government taking climate change seriously and signalling that they want to have action is very helpful.

“We could have (climate change) denial, but that is not what happened today. There was an acknowledgment that climate change is real. There was an acknowledgment that we need to do something about it. There was a framework document put in place that signals the direction and all of that is very beneficial and very good.

“Society should not be afraid of this moment. We’re gently being eased into it with this plan, but the opportunity to have an investment in this way of thinking now, the payoff in the future is massive.

“Let’s try and push forward as Manitobans and make sure that we actually contribute to a successful process.”

Ideally good policy and good politics would be one in the same, but that’s not always so in the real world, especially in these hyper-partisan days of ‘winner take all,’ amplified in the echo chambers of Twitter and Facebook, usurping traditional democratic tenets of compromise and consensus building.

Pallister didn’t give in to his lesser angels to fight Ottawa’s pernicious carbon tax, contrary to demands from some Progressive Conservative members, even after threats they would create a new party to challenge him.

Pallister astutely suspected Ottawa had the authority to impose such a tax, later verified by University of Manitoba law professor, Bryan Schwartz.

Instead Pallister risked political capital, and claims to have developed a better plan — one that will cut more carbon emissions than Ottawa’s, be cheaper, and lets the Manitoba government, not Ottawa, decide how to spend the estimated $258 million a year the Manitoba carbon tax is expected to generate.

Manitobans should get credit for their investment in hydro electricity, Pallister says. Without it Manitoba’s annual emissions would be 42 megatonnes — double the current 21. Regulators don’t give credits retroactively, however, Manitobans’ hydro investment is ongoing.

Brian Pallister has a lot riding on this. Even if he is able to fully implement the plan there’s no guarantee it will work.

Meanwhile, nobody likes paying more to run their cars or heat their homes with natural gas, and a five-year plan allows some breathing room.

If Ottawa chooses to invoke its carbon tax, expect Pallister to fight. If he wins, he wins. And if loses he still wins, at least politically.

Pallister can truthfully say he tried to do the right thing for Manitoba’s environment and economy and in the eyes of many voters, Trudeau and the Liberal federal government will be the bad guys.

The post Manitoba’s ‘climate and green’ plan good policy, smart politics appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

A CN spokesperson says the company is committed to meeting grain company needs. To that end CN has ramped up hiring and this quarter will add another 250 new crew members, Kate Fenske said in an email Nov. 3.

“We’re completing delivery of 22 new AC locomotives and are in the process of injecting 100 more locomotives into our fleet that were in long-term storage,” Fenske wrote. “We’ve increased our capital spending for the year by $100 million, including investments in our Edmonton to Jasper corridor.”

Despite setbacks CN shipped 15 per cent more cars out of Manitoba through the first 13 weeks of this crop year compared to last year and is current on all orders, she wrote.

Fenske blamed a number of factors for service problems, including a derailment in Alberta caused by strong winds, reduced unloads at Prince Rupert because the grain terminal is not operating seven days a week, and increased shipments of other commodities.

• Read more: C-49 Transportation Modernization Act off to Senate
• Read more: Farmers, grain companies deliver consistent message on rail legislation

“CN continues to see increased demand across several business segments including intermodal, metals, coal and frac sand,” Fenske wrote. “Following more than a year of declining volumes, dating back to 2015, our economy has turned around.”

In week 10 CN fulfilled 83 per cent of the cars grain companies ordered for that week, but percentages fell to 68 and 61 per cent respectively in weeks 11 and 12.

Most weeks this crop year CP Rail delivered 90 per cent of the cars grain companies ordered for that week.

Eagle eye

Grain companies and farmers are gun shy after a huge backlog of grain occurred in the 2013-14 crop year, which by one estimate cost farmers more than $5 billion in lower prices over two crop years. Both groups want to nip any potential new backlog in the bud.

“This year I am asking you to let KAP know if there is any late delivery of contracts by railways or grain elevators… and we will follow up… with the Crop Logistics Working Group, the Grain Monitor, the Ag Transport Coalition, the railways, the federal agriculture minister, the transport minister,” Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier told delegates Nov. 2 at KAP’s fall advisory council meeting.

“We need to be on this. Time is of the essence if we are seeing any delays.”

In an Oct. 20 interview, Mazier said he was concerned with CN’s performance, especially compared to last crop year when most weeks CN fulfilled 90 per cent or more of car orders.

As of week 10 of 2017-18, CN had cancelled 1,596 car orders, compared to 516 during the same period in 2016-17. As of week 12 the figure had almost doubled to 3,337 cars — the equivalent of almost 8,000 B trains, Mazier said.

According CN’s statistics, in week 13 its network was recovering. Although strong customer demand continued to exceed the sustainable supply chain capacity, all contract orders were accepted and 776 spot orders were rationed, Fenske wrote.

CN says its system can handle 4,000 cars a week in winter, but it shipped 4,482 in week 13.

Since the start of the crop year CN says it shipped 5.2 million tonnes (57,100 cars), plus 8,258 private cars (767,000 tonnes).

Since 2013-14 grain companies have learned not to make grain sales if they fear the railways can’t deliver the cars to fulfil them, Mazier said.

“How does that not quash a free market? They (railways) are the bottleneck in the whole free market,” Mazier said. “We are under this illusion we’re in an open market and we market all we want and then the railways come along and say ‘no, we can’t do that.’”

Industry worries

The Western Grain Elevator Association (WGEA), which represents the West’s major grain companies, is also concerned about CN’s recent performance, but is willing to cut it some slack given its recent challenges and that it’s adding crews and power, executive director Wade Sobkowich said in an interview Nov. 3.

“We feel we need to give them (CN) the opportunity to correct this before we start taking any action with the government or otherwise,” Sobkowich said, alluding to emergency powers invoked by Ottawa in March 2014 ordering both railways to move a minimum volume of grain weekly or be fined.

“CN is trying to manage the issue,” Sobkowich said. “We do recognize that it will probably take them awhile to recover, even if they could bring on power and crews right away. So we’re going to try and work with that.”

Since part of the problem is increasing volumes of non-grain traffic, measures need to be taken to better predict railway demand, Sobkowich said.

“Intermodal is a more competitive industry than the grain industry,” he said, alluding to how containers can more easily move from one railway to another. “Both railways tend to want to put more resources into shipping containers than grain cars and that doesn’t work for us.”

The post CN car fulfilment dropped in weeks 11 and 12 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

While the plan includes a flat $25-a-tonne carbon tax starting sometime next year, it also says if Manitoba diesel pumps had to include five per cent biodiesel instead of the current two per cent, carbon emissions over the next five years would drop by between 360,000 to 431,000 tonnes.

• Read more: Mazier defends KAP’s approach on ‘made-in-Manitoba’ carbon tax

That would be the second- largest method of cutting emission behind the carbon tax, which is projected to reduce emissions by 1.07 million tonnes.

While the carbon tax is projected to reduce emissions by 40 per cent, adding more biodiesel would cut emissions up to 16 per cent, according to the plan.

“If we can convince the government that the biodiesel portion should be from canola, for example that’s a 1.9-million-tonne demand (based on five per cent biodiesel across Canada)…” Fossay said. “There’s a good chance we could see our (canola) prices go up.”

Someone suggested a higher biodiesel requirement could result in higher diesel prices, but Fossay noted “marked” farm fuel is exempt from the carbon tax.

In an interview later he said canola-based biofuel is cheaper to make than drilling for, extracting processing petroleum into diesel.

“We think it (canola-based biodiesel) will go a long ways to helping reduce carbon emissions that come from diesel fuel,” he said.

“By going to the B5 level (five per cent biodiesel) the carbon emissions will be reduced I believe by three to four megatonnes a year. So that goes a long ways to achieving the 80-megatonne targets that the (federal) government has… by 2022.”

The MCGA has not taken a position on Manitoba’s plan, but will discuss it at an upcoming board meeting, Fossay said.

The MCGA does favour more biodiesel, he said.

“Certainly any time we can find a new market for canola seed it’s a benefit to producers across Western Canada,” Fossay said.

KAP also supports regulations requiring more biodiesel be used, KAP president Dan Mazier said in an interview after the meeting.

“It will make a huge difference,” he said.

The post Carbon tax could translate into more demand for canola appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I find this entire carbon tax thing to be a complete fiasco and I view our prime minister (Justin Trudeau) as a quisling,” Starbuck farmer Ed Rempel said during KAP’s fall advisory council meeting here Nov. 2.

“Why are we supporting a carbon tax?”

KAP president Dan Mazier said KAP’s position was determined democratically.

“If there’s a different way of dealing with the reality by all means bring it forward in a resolution, Mazier said. “But I appreciate the comments because it has been a very long year. Now we have something we can move forward with.”

Mazier, who said the issue has been divisive, hopes to get KAP members’ feedback at district meetings being held around the province Nov. 13 to 17.

• Read more: Carbon tax could translate into more demand for canola

Would be imposed

The “reality” Mazier alluded to, was that a year ago the Manitoba government told KAP the province will have a carbon tax one way or another. That’s because the federal government announced it would impose one if provinces didn’t develop their own.

KAP chose to push for a carbon tax exemption on carbon emissions resulting from farming as well as on farm fuels, and to encourage the government to invest some of its carbon tax revenue to help farmers reduce carbon emissions and help the environment.

The Manitoba government unveiled its plan Oct. 27, which includes a flat $25-a-tonne carbon tax starting sometime next year. (The federal government’s plan would start at $10 a tonne and rise to $50 by 2022. The federal government said if Manitoba’s plan doesn’t go to $50 it will be non-compliant.)

Manitoba’s plan also includes some of what KAP sought, including a carbon tax exemption on emissions caused by farming and on purple fuel.

The plan also proposes working with farmers to sequester carbon and tackle flooding, droughts, drainage and wetland and grassland restoration and preservation.

Agriculture heard

In an interview later Mazier agreed KAP got much of what it sought.

Manitoba’s carbon tax is expected to earn the government $258 million a year — $74 million of it from homeowners.

Much of that money will come from the carbon tax that will add an extra 5.2 and 6.7 cents a litre on the cost of (non-farm) gasoline and diesel, respectively, and another 4.8 cents per cubic metre on natural gas.

The government hasn’t decided if it will exempt fuels to heat barns and grain dryers.

“If we don’t keep the pressure on it’s going to go the other way,” Mazier said later in an interview.

Mazier told Rempel the Manitoba government understands agriculture. Premier Brian Pallister said purple fuel had to be exempt from the carbon tax because most farmers are price takers and can’t pass the tax on.

Mazier said Manitoba’s plan will bring all government departments together to work on the environment, including agriculture and the environment.

I think that’s a really positive move. We’ll see,” he said.

“We know what it’s like to be locked out of the environmental camp. We’re living that policy today through our surface water management strategy, our (hog) barn moratorium, all that sort of stuff. That is environment policy that we had no say in. I think we’ve turned that corner.

“I think it’s a really good approach. I’ve never seen this much openness and collaboration on the environment and agriculture.”

Ongoing development

New programs to help farmers cut emission and deliver ecological services will likely take a year or two to implement, KAP general manager James Battershill said.

“It certainly is going to be a key component around what the province develops on this file,” Battershill said.

Manitoba has two years to demonstrate its plan to reduce carbon emissions is better than Ottawa’s, he said. Farm programs are likely to be in place no later than 2020 “because they (Manitoba government) need farmers to support them with their challenges with Ottawa,” he said.

The Manitoba government says its plan to reduce carbon should take into the billions of dollars Manitobans have invested and continue to invest in clean hydro electricity.

“I think it is a very valid argument,” Mazier said.

It’s also why in Manitoba agriculture accounts for 32 per cent of the province’s carbon emissions, second only to transportation at 39 per cent, he said. In most other provinces electrical production is one of the biggest emitters.

“We’re (as farmers) not any less efficient, or giving off any more greenhouse gas, than (farmers in) Saskatchewan, Alberta or B.C.,” Mazier said. “But our balance is different in Manitoba… and that’s the predicament… and that’s why they came up with this made-in-Manitoba solution.”

Mazier also noted the plan should prevent large carbon emitters, such as Husky’s ethanol plant in Minnedosa and Koch Fertilizer in Brandon, from leaving the province.

Under what the Manitoba government is calling “output pricing” the province’s eight biggest emitters will be expected not to produce more carbon than is considered the industry standard. If they do they will pay the carbon tax on the overage, rather than on their total emissions. If they emit less they will get a credit, which they can sell or trade.

That system isn’t expected to take effect until 2019.

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