Canada’s new tax on carbon, set to start at C$10 in 2018 and reach C$50 by 2022, could hurt the country’s farmers and fertilizer companies, says Reuters.
Canada is in one of the world’s biggest grain-producers. But at C$50, the tax “would raise fertilizer prices by C$2 per acre for Canadian farmers, and some experts peg the total farm cost at C$6 an acre, according to the CIBC bank,” says Reuters. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers have already collected 2,500 signatures for a petition opposing the tax.
Fertilizer producers in western Canada also are bracing for the tax’s impact, predicting that production will likely have to move elsewhere because business costs will be too high.
Asked how the country could protect farmers’ livelihoods when the tax takes effect, Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay suggested provinces use the tax income to subsidize growers. British Columbia and Alberta have said they plan on exempting farm fuel purchases from the tax, while Brad Wall, the premier from Saskatchewan, a major grain province, has suggested that rather than pinging carbon consumption, the country should focus on rewarding clean tech and renewable power.