Farmers struggling with carbon tax: “What are they accomplishing?”

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The B.C. Grain Producer’s Association President, Malcolm Odermatt, says there’s a disconnect between what the government wants and the fundamental realities of farming.

Odermatt is a third-generation crop farmer working out of Baldonnel. He grows barley, wheat, canola and other grains, and like many farmers, is struggling through the ongoing drought and pressures caused by the carbon tax.

The tax first came into effect in 2008. According to the B.C. government, the tax “puts a price on carbon pollution, providing a signal across the economy to reduce emissions while encouraging sustainable economic activity and investment in low-carbon innovation.”

On April 1st, the tax rate increased from $65 per tonne of emissions to $80 per tonne, meaning 20.74 cents per litre of diesel, 17.61 cents per litre of gasoline, and 15.25 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.

Odermatt says the tax has put an extreme strain on farmers, who can’t pivot away from using fossil fuels even if they want to.

“[Crop farmers] need to produce a shelf-stable product so that we can sell it and it can get trucked across the country, and then across the ocean,” Odermatt explained.

“We can either try and leave that crop out in the field, in order to be able to get dry naturally, through the sun and through the wind, however [in the Peace region] we all know the weather’s slightly unpredictable.”

Surprise showers or snowfall can ruin crops left out to dry, Odermatt says, so the only solution is to use industrial grain drying machines, which run on natural gas.

“Right now, there is no alternative to using natural gas, and yet we’re being told, ‘Oh, no, we have to become more green,’” Odermatt said. 

“You could have a billion dollars, but you can’t buy an electric grain dryer.”

He says the main limitation is heat — a grain dryer needs to reach six million British Thermal Units (BTUs) at minimum, according to Odermatt.

“Your average household furnace is about 90 to 100 thousand BTUs, and that’s only running five minutes every half an hour, compared to a grain dryer, which has to run 24 hours a day at that capacity,” he explained.

“So it’s a little tough right now, going and being told we need to find alternative energy sources when they don’t exist.”

Odermatt says a similar limitation exists for farmers considering buying electric tractors — horsepower.

“Now there are starting to be electric tractors out there, but they’re going to be under 30 horsepower. For most grain producers, our main feeding tractor will be over 500 horsepower. It’ll be a fourteen-litre diesel engine producing mass amounts of torque.”

A comparable electric tractor also doesn’t exist, according to Odermatt. 

Renee Ardill, a livestock farmer who owns a historic ranch east of Hudson’s Hope, says the people who created the carbon tax don’t understand the reality of living in the Peace region.

“In the Lower Mainland, they can get on a bus, they can have an electric car to putter around town with,” Ardill said.

“You try driving an electric car out here when it’s 40 below [zero] and see how far it gets. I live 40 miles out of town. I doubt the damn thing would even get there.”

Ardill, also a member of the Canadian Cattle Association’s Board of Directors, says better alternatives need to be created if they want farmers to make different choices.

Meanwhile, Ernest Wiebe, a mixed grain and cattle farmer in the Buick Creek area, says even if it were possible for farmers to universally switch to electric vehicles, it would only introduce new problems.

“There isn’t enough electricity produced in Canada to charge all the electric vehicles if everything were to go electric,” he said.

Another difficulty many farmers agree on is the fact that the carbon tax has elevated costs elsewhere in the agricultural pipeline, which results in additional costs for farmers.

“Every other industry, whether it’s fertilizer, whether it’s herbicides or pesticides of sorts, or whether it’s freight — like, for CN Rail to transport our grain to port — all the industries in port, all the local elevators, their increased costs in their day-to-day operations are affecting us and our bottom line,” Wiebe says.

Echoing Wiebe’s sentiment, Ardill says everything has become more expensive thanks to the tax.

“Equipment’s more expensive. Hauling cattle is more expensive when you’re going to ship,” said Ardill. 

“The trucks, they’re paying the carbon tax too, everybody is, but we cannot make other choices at this time. There just aren’t reliable alternatives.”

Ardill also says the tax and its impact on farmers is exacerbating the problem of food insecurity.

“They talk about food security, but then they go and legislate us and tax us, pretty much out of existence,” said Ardill. 

“A lot of people have left the business, for various reasons, but there’s not really much reason for them to come back. The government’s going to be sitting here with nobody producing food if they don’t wake up a bit.”

When asked what needs to be done to address the stresses the carbon tax has put on farmers, Wiebe says the solution is simple: axe the tax.

Many other people across the Peace region agree with Wiebe, with some organizing as part of a nationwide protest when the last tax rate increase hit at the start of April.

The tax is partially responsible for increases in the price of gasoline for regular consumers, and it’s also been controversial among Fort St. John city council for its impacts on the costs of home heating.

“[The carbon tax] is not something that will benefit climate change,” Wiebe says. 

Ardill agrees, again, saying the tax “should be scrapped.”

“I would scrap the whole thing, but at least [remove it] on agricultural fuel, and I would scrap it on trucking, too, because a lot of produce moves by truck. Pretty well everything does. It just makes everything more expensive, and in the grand scheme of things, what are they accomplishing?”

Wiebe also stresses that farmers are more than willing to reduce their carbon footprint in other ways, citing technology advancements like AI systems in sprayers and vehicles that have allowed many to significantly reduce the amount of substances like fertilizer and herbicides.

“What needs to happen is just that farmers need to be acknowledged and encouraged to continue to embrace some of these newer technologies, and there should rather be some tax incentives or tax credits to help offset the incredible expense of these new technologies.”

According to the provincial government’s website, the carbon tax rate is set to increase again in 2025 and 2026. To view a detailed breakdown of what those increases would look like, click here.