Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb's Private Members Bill Back in the House of Commons
by Bob Montgomery
Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb's Private Members Bill would allow an exemption on propane and natural gas on farms when it is used for drying crops, heating of livestock barns and the production of food inside of a building. It would remove the carbon tax from those farm uses. Lobb says that would be significant because the carbon tax now is almost equal to the billing portion of the actual natural gas use.
Lobb says he believes it's unethical to be charging a carbon tax on farmers for the food they grow and particularly when they don't get any environmental credit for the environmental benefit they provide on-farm through things like managing woodlots, planting cover crops, no-till drilling as well as the actual carbon sequestration their crops do as living organisms and the amount of carbon they sequester back into the soil. Lobb says he believes the government would be better off to axe the tax and allow farmers to have some margin on their farm operations. Lobb maintains with inflation, higher interest rates, the cost to rent crop land going up and the cost of fertilizer going up there is more pressure on farmers at this time.
The Bill was passed in the House and moved on to the Senate where it was amended, which Lobb says is very rare for a Private Members Bill. It is now back in the House of Commons for further debate. Lobb says he believes at this point it's just being dragged out until it doesn't get passed. He says since Parliament came back three weeks ago, the Bill has been debated every week and has been up for debate three times with no resolution. He is hoping in the next couple of weeks they can come to an agreement and pass the Bill as it was originally intended and get it back to the Senate. His understanding is that the Senate is not going to amend it again or drag it out, they're going to have some discussion, share information and then have a final vote on it and he expects that will happen some time in April.
