Members of Keystone Agricultural Producers adopted a policy on carbon pricing at their recent fall advisory council meeting, in response to the recent federal announcement that a carbon price must be in place in all provinces by the end of 2018.
Producers at the meeting argued they will ultimately pay the cost of a carbon price being added to the production of fertilizer and other inputs. For that reason, they have asked KAP to lobby the province to exempt their direct emissions – such as use of fuel and fertilizer – necessary for the production of food when developing its carbon-pricing system.
However, they agreed they want to do their part in the fight against climate change, and are asking the province to invest some of the revenue from its “made-in-Manitoba” system into programs that will help them sequester carbon and reduce emissions. As well, they called for investment into research that will help them move to zero or negative emissions.
“Right now, at this point in time, we need fertilizer and fuel to produce food – it’s that simple,” said KAP president Dan Mazier. “However, we want to be part of the solution and move to new production methods and technologies that will reduce or eliminate our carbon footprint – but we can’t do it alone.”
Delegates to the meeting also asked that carbon-pricing revenue be put into programs that will help them adapt to climate change.
“The wet and warm weather we’re experiencing this fall has hampered the harvest to a point where we simply cannot get onto the fields, and this is just one example of what climate change will do,” Mazier said. “I’ve heard of places in the southwest that got three feet of rain and don’t expect to get the rest of the crop off, or to plant a crop next year.”
Also at the meeting, producers had a lengthy discussion on the increase in municipal and school taxes, with many indicating their tax bills had more than doubled. Mazier pointed to an RM where the increase resulted in a cost increase of over $29 per acre.
They called for continued pressure on the province to move to a taxation system where everyone – including homeowners and corporations – pay their fair share of the education tax.
