Saskatchewan’s general farm organization dipped its toes into the murky waters of carbon pricing last week.
It came away with a generally positive view of how Canada’s plan to monitor, reduce and tax carbon emissions might affect prairie farmers.
Experts who spoke at the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan’s Prairie Agriculture Carbon Summit said establishing a framework to price carbon, tax emitters and reward those who sequester greenhouse gases could prove to be hugely beneficial for agriculture.
However, the agriculture industry must be prepared to present a strong case to policy makers, explaining why farm practices that reduce carbon emissions should be rewarded, they added.
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And their arguments must be backed by science.
“Pay attention to this issue (because) it is not going to go away,” said John Bennett, a panelist at the event and former chair of the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association.
“It will be part of your life and it can either benefit you or be a detriment to your operation.
“There is huge value in this thing, and we need to ensure that at least some of that value comes back to the farmer.”
Brian McConkey, a research scientist with Agriculture Canada, said land managers — particularly farmers and foresters — have a significant opportunity to influence policy and set the direction for Canada’s new approach to managing greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.
“We are in the greenhouse gas business,” McConkey told a crowd of several hundred who attended the July 13-14 event in Saskatoon.
“You’re manipulating carbon and nitrogen cycles on the farm, so you are a big player in this.”
Beginning next year, Canada will implement a carbon tax aimed at reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Every province in Canada will have the flexibility to design its own system for taxing emissions, rewarding those that contribute to emission reductions and investing revenues collected through the tax.
The Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments openly oppose the concept of a carbon tax.
Detractors say the tax will inevitably result in higher prices for many consumer products, including fossil fuels, and will have a negative effect on the provincial and federal economies.
However, many of the expert panelists who spoke at the APAS event suggested that it is preferable to get on board and influence policy, rather than oppose the concept and live with the consequences of policies made by others.
The federal government has already devised a backstop carbon policy that will be imposed on provinces that fail to develop their own carbon taxation and mitigation mechanisms.
That backstop policy includes exemptions for the consumption of most fossil fuels on the farm.
It also proposes a taxation rate of $10 for every tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted in 2018, increasing to $50 per tonne by 2022.
Revenues collected through the tax can be reinvested at the province’s discretion.
Industries that present a sound argument for carbon tax exemptions or financial incentives that reward emission-reducing activities could potentially benefit under the new carbon tax regime.
At $50 per tonne, revenues generated through a national carbon tax plan could easily exceed hundreds of billions of dollars annually, according to some experts.
APAS president Todd Lewis said Saskatchewan’s agriculture industry is uniquely positioned to secure a share of that revenue.
“I think we have to recognize that this is an opportunity for agriculture, and the initial groundwork that’s laid is to influence the plan going forward for the next number of decades. I think in a lot of ways this could be a positive story for agriculture.”
