WESTERN PRODUCER — Amendments to Bill C-234 will cost Canadian farmers nearly $90 million a year, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer released February 13.
The PBO provides independent economic and financial analysis to Canada’s Parliament.
Under the version of the bill that was heavily amended in the Senate, farmers would have saved $115 million in carbon taxes by 2026. The new version will reduce those saving to just $26 million a year by the same date.
The Senate amendments, passed Dec. 12, removed exemptions for fuel used to heat or cool buildings used to raise and house livestock or crops.
A further amendment lowered the sunset period of the bill from eight years to three. The original bill would have lasted until 2030, but the amended version will only run until 2026.
The original bill passed 176 to 146 in the House of Commons. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said the bill could still be stripped in the House and sent back to the Senate.
