Province wasted chance to get farmers federal cash

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This article was published 22/07/2020 (1957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Provincial inaction has squandered the prospect of millions in federal carbon-tax compensation for Manitoba farmers, according to internal records.

Premier Brian Pallister joined farmers in railing against the federal carbon tax being imposed on drying grain after last year’s wet autumn.

But Manitoba waited until Ottawa closed the door to financial relief to provide the federal Liberals with the data they asked for six months prior, according to records obtained by the provincial NDP.

“They didn’t do their homework. They could have presented a strong case,” said NDP Leader Wab Kinew.

“They failed to do it, and as a result Manitoba producers are going to be taking a hit here.”

Last fall, farmers faced not only a CN Rail strike and China’s canola boycott, but also a wet autumn requiring them to use fuel to dry their grain, just as the carbon tax took effect.

Using fuel to dry grain is one of the few agricultural tasks that isn’t exempted under the carbon levy.

Back in December, Ottawa asked agriculture ministers from the Prairie provinces to tally how much the federal carbon tax added to farmers’ costs that year, specifically for drying grain, so the Liberals could consider compensation.

Manitoba Agriculture Minister Blaine Pedersen pledged the province would tabulate that cost.

Yet records released Tuesday show that Manitoba declined an offer by the province’s biggest farm group, Keystone Agricultural Producers, to conduct a survey, and didn’t compile its own data until it was too late.

Alberta had submitted its own estimate back in February.

On June 9, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau told the Free Press Ottawa assessed the cost for Manitoba and Saskatchewan using its own modelling from 2018.

The federal projections suggested a 0.2 per cent impact on Manitoba farmers’ operating expenses. The industry disputed that figure, but Bibeau said it was too low to merit financial relief.

The new records show that Manitoba finally submitted its data one week after Bibeau had closed the door to compensation, some six months after being asked to assemble estimates.

In the June letter, Manitoba bureaucrats estimated the grain-drying cost at between $1.3 million and $3 million for 2019.

It’s impossible to compare those dollar figures with Ottawa’s percentage estimates of the grain-drying tax on overall operating costs.

“We’ve been frustrated with the length of time, and the steps that were taken,” said KAP president Bill Campbell.

The records show KAP reached out in January to offer the provincial agriculture department help in conducting a survey of farmers.

Bureaucrats discussed the idea with KAP, but ultimately never conducted a survey; no reason is stated in the records.

“We encouraged them to work with us and offered a helping hand to get this information in a timely fashion, where it would have been utilized and presented to the federal government. It may have had some impact on their process,” Campbell said.

He wasn’t sure how the province assembled its estimates. The variability of moisture for crops being harvested at different times makes it hard to pinpoint fuel costs specific to drying grain, though he said the provincial number seems credible.

Campbell stressed KAP would still be willing to help either level of government if Ottawa reopens the door to compensation.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Manitoba's internal costing of grain-drying in federal carbon tax