Carbon exemption amendments costly to farmers: PBO

Glacier FarmMedia – Amendments to Bill C-234 will cost Canadian farmers nearly $90 million a year, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released February 13.

The PBO provides independent economic and financial analysis to Canada’s Parliament.

Initially, the bill proposed to exempt fuels used in grain drying, barn and greenhouse heating from the price of carbon for eight years. The PBO projected farmers would have saved $115 million in carbon taxes by 2026 if this version had passed.

The current, heavily amended version, will reduce those savings to $26 million.

This doesn’t include any carbon price rebates farmers might receive.

The Senate amended the bill to remove exemptions for heating buildings and to reduce the bill’s sunset clause to three years from eight.

The original bill passed 176 to 146 in the House of Commons in early 2023. It is again under debate in the House, where Conservative MP Ben Lobb put forward a motion that the bill be stripped of its amendments and returned to the Senate.