Thank you very much for inviting me to be with you today. This is an issue that remains top of mind for our farmer members, so it's much appreciated that I was invited here today.
My name is Brendan Byrne. I'm the chair of the Grain Farmers of Ontario. I farm in Essex, near the Windsor border, with my family. It's harvest time for our members, so on our farm we're harvesting soybeans, and around me the corn harvest has also started, which is similar across the province.
I want to begin my remarks by just thanking members of this committee for examining this important bill. It's something that our farmer members are looking at, checking in and asking about it, so it's important that we're here today.
An exemption from the carbon price is important to our grain farmers for five reasons.
First is to prevent spoilage. Grain needs to be dried down to be able to be stored; otherwise, it will rot and will not be available.
Second is reliable grain drying systems. A reliable supply of energy and proven grain-drying technology allow farmers to dry their grain in a short period of time under any weather conditions.
Third, there are no alternatives. There are ideas and potential alternatives that people are looking at, but none of them have been proven to work on the scale or at the level that we need them in Ontario. With these alternatives, there isn't a clear message as to whether they actually would reduce our carbon. The EU is backing away from such things as biomass dryers due to its carbon emission profile, and the CBC reported this week that wood biomass burning is worse than coal.
Fourth, our farmers are unable to reduce their carbon price. We are price-takers in the marketplace. We feel that the money would be better off in the hands of the farmers to further innovate on their farm and to try to come up with ways and solutions to better their carbon footprint.
Fifth, the rebate that's been presented to us falls far short of what's actually paid. Less than 15% of what grain farmers are paying is returned by the government rebate.
I want to quickly explain how grain drying works in Ontario. Corn, for instance, needs to be at a level of 15% to store it or ship it. In September, the corn plant stops growing. We wait for Mother Nature to drain out as much moisture as possible. Wind, sun, and the natural effects of the weather do that, but then we need to get the corn off before the weather turns to where we can't do that anymore.
Once we get into the fields, we find out exactly what the moisture level of the corn will be. Once we get in there, we are very much at the mercy of the weather, so time is of the essence to get the crop off. Typically, the corn harvest is anywhere from 20% to 28% moisture when we're taking it out of the field and trying to get it off, get it dried, and get it shipped at an acceptable level, which is very hard for our farmer members as it is.
Drying grain happens in real time. During the week of the harvest, it could be running 24 hours a day. We have to be careful not to overdry, or dry too fast, so we don't damage the corn. We want to make sure that it's useful for human consumption, for animals, and the multiple uses that the crop is used for.
The dryers right now allow us to dial it up to the energy needed, and turn it down if it gets too hot. Grain drying is an essential part of harvesting grain. If we get this wrong, we don't have a crop to sell, and we're producing less food.
Eight years from now, upwards of $2.7 billion would be paid by Ontario grain farmers for the carbon price on grain drying. All this money is coming out of our pockets. Farmers cannot pass this on to anyone else. They simply have to pay it and bear the brunt of this. As I said, the rebate that's in place now simply doesn't cover anywhere near the cost of it.
Greenhouse growers are exempt from the price on carbon for their operations, and so should grain drying. Bill C-234 would give us time to figure out viable solutions and make sure that there is potentially a road map to innovation and implementation, with the proper supply chain in place to cover that off.
This is a major undertaking. It affects food security and food supply. We have to be very careful with what we're doing there.
I do, again, thank you for your time. If you haven't seen what grain drying looks like, we could certainly submit a video, which is about three minutes. I want to thank everybody on the committee for taking time to consider this bill, and we look forward to a good discussion.
Thank you very much.