Canadian environment minister says farmers are more worried about climate change than the carbon tax

Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault claimed Monday during the House of Commons Question Period that he is meeting with farmers and they are all telling him that they are not opposed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax but are worried about climate change. 

“Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives had an ounce of intellectual integrity, they would admit to Canadians that 97 percent of fuel used on farms where there is pollution pricing is not taxed by the federal government, first of all,” Guilbeault said.

“Secondly, do you know what I've been doing, Mr. Speaker, recently? I've been meeting with farmers from Quebec, Alberta, Nova Scotia. I've been meeting with grain farmers, cattle farmers: they don't talk to me about carbon pricing. They talk to me about the hundreds of millions of dollars due to impacts from climate change in the farming sector in the country.”

The Trudeau government often quotes but has never demonstrated how “97 percent of fuel used on farms” is not subject to the carbon tax since the natural gas used to heat barns on Canadian farms that are used to protect livestock from the cold and grow crops under cover has the carbon tax applied, unlike American farmers who have no carbon tax.  Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has produced energy bills from a farm in his constituency that show the enormity of the carbon tax.

“Justin Trudeau’s Christmas gift to one farm in my riding: $16,000 in carbon taxes in a month. Wonder why you can’t afford food,” Poilievre wrote. 

Farmers across Canada continue to protest the carbon tax in large numbers. And Canadian farm organizations are fighting the carbon tax through an Ag Carbon Alliance coalition.

The post of Guilbeault’s claim that farmers are not concerned about the carbon tax but are fixated on climate change prompted a deluge of responses on X:

“What a complete joke," one user responded. "Hasn’t he seen all the farmer protests?” 

“He should come visit the farms out here and try to make that point….people still have backbones here.”

“Is this another LPC 'Thank You for The Carbon Tax Letters from Bob and Suzy' episode?”

Guilbeault has previously claimed that individuals named “Bob” and “Jill” sent him letters supporting the carbon tax. When an access to information request was filed to force the environment minister to produce the correspondence, he claimed he could not find the letters. 

The Canadian government has not conducted nor publicly released any studies showing the cumulative effects of the carbon tax are not adding to farmers’ costs or food inflation.