The General Manager of Manitoba Pork is calling on Canadian farmers and consumers to encourage the senators that represent them to support Bill C-234.
Bill C-234, a private member’s bill that will create specific exemptions for farmers to Canada’s carbon pricing scheme has passed in the House of Commons and will now move to Senate.
Cam Dahl, the General Manager of Manitoba Pork says energy is one of the leading costs in raising pigs.
The carbon tax really does add significant cost, especially when it comes to heating barns and farmers don’t have a choice. It’s not like we can say, we’re getting charged more for natural gas or propane so we’re going to shift to something else. We have to heat our barns. Those costs make farmers less competitive on the international market place. We export 90 percent of our pork and we’re competing against producers in other parts of the world that don’t have a carbon tax. It also increases costs for consumers in a time where we haven’t seen food inflation like this since the 1970s and 80s.
It’s something that is hitting producers when the margins are in the red as well as hitting consumers when price inflation is going through the roof. It makes us more competitive internationally if we can pull those costs out. We’re competing with producers all over the world and they don’t face these cost structures. So, it helps us compete internationally. And all of these input costs will have an impact on the consumer price and right now consumers are seeing food inflation like they haven’t seen in 40 years.
~ Cam Dahl, Manitoba Pork
Dahl notes every province has senators and their contact information is publicly available. He encourages everyone to contact them and encourage them to pass this bill as quickly as possible.
