Thank you.
My name is Mike Ammeter. I'm the chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association. I farm at Sylvan Lake, Alberta, which is an hour and a half north of Calgary. I grow canola, pulses, wheat and barley on 1,400 acres. With me today is Dave Carey, CCGA's VP of government and industry relations.
CCGA is the national organization representing Canada's 43,000 canola farmers. Canola is Canada's most widely seeded crop, generating the largest farm cash receipts of any agricultural commodity, earning Canadian farmers over $10.2 billion in 2020. Canola farmers export over 90% of our crop. The industry we support contributes 207,000 jobs and $29.9 billion to Canada's economy every year.
Canola farmers are committed to a sustainable future and have established goals to support that commitment. By 2025, they will reduce their fuel usage by 18% per bushel, increase land use efficiency by 40% per bushel, sequester an additional five million tonnes of CO2, use 4R nutrient stewardship practices on 90% of canola production acres and continue to safeguard the more than 2,000 beneficial insects that call canola fields and surrounding habitat home.
CCGA is pleased to support Bill C-206. While we were pleased to see the budget include a commitment to return part of the funds collected from the price on carbon to farmers, we view this bill as a more direct and efficient way to provide farmers with an exemption for propane and natural gas used on farm for grain drying and irrigation.
For my farm, grain drying is important because it allows me to get my crop off the field when time is short at the end of the harvest season and the weather turns to rain and snow. Sometimes I cannot wait for my crop to dry in the field. When a crop sits in the field with excess moisture, it loses quality and volume, which in turn means I will have to sell it at a discount. If wet grain is put into storage, it can spoil in a matter of days.
In the last 15 years, my farm has experienced increased weather variability not seen since the 1960s. It has become more and more difficult to harvest my crops due to rain and snow, even at the end of the growing season. This means I have to run my natural gas grain dryer more often than not. That dryer is a piece of farming equipment that is central to my operation now. Since I purchased it, I have invested approximately $20,000 upgrading it to make it as energy efficient as possible. If there was a way for me to make my dryer more efficient yet, I would do so, but there isn't anything currently on the market that can help me reduce my drying costs.
I understand that the government's objective with the price on carbon is to change behaviour and to transition operations to an alternative fuel source. However, farmers do not have viable alternatives available to us.
Global competitiveness is critical to our industry. Canadian canola farmers are price-takers on a global market with no ability to pass additional costs on. These additional costs will impact our ability to remain competitive and will threaten the viability of our farming operations.
I appreciate the government's recent budget announcement that they will provide $50 million in funding for projects like retrofitting grain dryers. While these types of programs may be useful to farmers who have not already retrofitted their dryer, as I have done, this will not address the fact that our energy infrastructure in western Canada is carbon based. If there was a way to transition from carbon-based inputs, our industry would do so. Fuel is one of my largest input costs. To keep pace with international competitors, farmers are constantly looking to become more fuel and energy efficient, but in order to achieve the BTUs necessary to properly dry my grain, I require carbon-based energy.
There's been concern that Bill C-206 may not accomplish what it's intended to do. To ensure that it does, we recommend that fuel used in grain drying and irrigation be properly accounted for in the bill as exempt from the price on carbon.
CCGA remains optimistic about the future of Canada's canola farmers and their ability to continue to contribute positively to both a healthy environment and a healthy economy. Canadian agriculture should be viewed as a strategic partner in this dialogue. Canola farmers are committed to building on our environmental successes.
Thank you.