Quick Facts
- Farmers have kept their emissions steady for 20 years while almost doubling production, resulting in a notable decrease of GHG emission intensity.
- Carbon pricing’s goal is to push corporations and consumers to less carbon-intensive products and processes by putting a cost on emissions.
- Farmers are already heavily incentivized to make their operations as efficient as possible to cut down on the costs of production.
- Due to a lack of available technologies and rural infrastructure, most farmers have no alternative energy options for many essential agricultural practices. Due to this, carbon pricing creates a financial burden without any potential for emission reductions.
- Ironically, this financial burden saps capital that farmers could use to make their operations more efficient and sustainable, negatively impacting long-term sustainability in the sector.
- While the carbon tax has been reduced to zero, farmers are seeking a permanent legislative change that officially removes the consumer’s carbon price.
Issue Overview
Farmers are stewards of the land, committed to preserving resources for generations to come.
Canadian agriculture occupies a large and important part of the Canadian environment. The farm community is the chief steward and manager of extensive natural resources, owner and architect of much of the landscape and caretaker of precious soil resources.
In its concern for the economic, environmental and social fabric of Canada, CFA believes that great importance should be placed on measures of environmental management to ensure maintenance of land resources which provide food for the people of Canada and a large part of the world’s population, but these measures must not impact the financial sustainability or competitiveness of Canadian farms
Carbon pricing
Over the past several years, CFA, as part of the Agricultural Carbon Alliance, has been advocating for exemptions to the carbon tax for agriculture. As agriculture is located primarily in rural areas with no energy alternatives, the carbon tax created a financial burden for farmers with no potential for emission reductions.
In 2025, the federal government reduced the consumer carbon tax to zero, effectively removing the financial burden on farmers.
Working towards solutions – Carbon pricing
While CFA was pleased to see the carbon tax reduced to zero, we continue to advocate to have the carbon tax removed permanently through legislation.
A notice of motion has been tabled by the Federal Government to remove consumer carbon pricing from law in May 2025, signalling their intent to repeal the law entirely.