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Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine

Grain Farmers of Ontario write the Prime Minister for relief from crippling carbon tax

GUELPH, ON (November 7, 2019) – Grain Farmers of Ontario, the province‘s largest commodity organization, sends a letter to Canada‘s Prime Minister to help farmers immediately by exempting the carbon tax on fuel used for drying.

Grain farmers are paying more taxes and taking in less money. Markets, prices and weather have combined to create a combination of stressors for farmers that some farms won‘t be able to manage. Prices are depressed from the U.S./China Trade war, China is refusing to buy soybeans, extreme weather events have created a difficult growing season and harvest is delayed across the province. Farmers facing market and harvest conditions cannot afford the federal carbon tax on fuel used for drying.

“In our letter, we are asking the Prime Minister to immediately revoke the carbon tax farmers are forced to pay when drying grain.” said Markus Haerle, chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario. “I am hearing from farmers from across Ontario, that this is a tax that farmers cannot afford to pay when markets and harvest conditions are so challenging.”

Grain farmers from across Ontario are concerned about how they are going to pay the carbon tax on their already expensive drying costs. Burdening grain farms with this tax means that farmers cannot invest in technologies that can combat climate change. It is not just farmers in Ontario that are facing the challenge of the carbon tax, it is farmers from across Canada who are facing the same issue.

Markus Haerle, Chair – 613 229-8336; marhaerle@gmail.com
Deb Conlon, Manager, Government Relations – 416 805-4490; dconlon@gfo.ca

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Grain Farmers of Ontario
Grain Farmers of Ontario is the province’s largest commodity organization, representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers. The crops they grow cover over 6 million acres of farm land across the province, generate over $4.1 billion in production value, result in over $27 billion in economic output and are responsible for over 90,000 jobs in the province.