It's a great question. Our worry is that if Canada moves ahead unilaterally with a CBAM or multilaterally with the European Union, it wouldn't help on fertilizer either.
Let me be clear: Canada has a large manufacturing sector for fertilizers, but only certain fertilizers. We're a proud manufacturer of potash, for example, in the prairies, but all of the phosphate farmers require in Canada is imported, and it's imported from places like the United States, Morocco and Algeria. While we may create a CBAM with the U.S.—we're obviously collaborating with our American counterparts on a daily basis—I'm very doubtful that we would include Morocco and Algeria in any of those conversations.
It's a big concern. We import $3 billion worth of fertilizers that go to grain farmers. That's essential for crop production. Fertilizers, pesticides, seeds and other inputs are essential, and the prices of those inputs are going up on a daily basis. Anything the government can do to alleviate the increase in input costs is something we're in support of. We're certainly not in support of mechanisms or policies that would increase taxation or increase the cost to grain farmers.
