Thanks, Mr. Chair.
It's great to be here considering this bill again.
The amendment that I've proposed here in LIB-1 is to remove lines 4 to 10. That is to basically remove property that enables barn heating as an eligible piece of farming machinery from this bill.
Grain drying is one of the arguments that's been made over and over again. We've heard that in terms of technology and renewable energy, there aren't commercially viable solutions for grain drying. I think what we did here was...that there are tools for heating and cooling of barns and/or greenhouses. I think that's part of the rationale of why this should be removed.
We also know that one thing farmers can do is insulate their barns. It is a possibility for reducing their carbon footprint. It would also, in some senses, decrease their costs. Barns across Alberta, for example, have little or no insulation and depend almost solely on body heat from livestock. I think we heard this in some of the testimony.
It is possible to retrofit barns and greenhouses. It is possible to use solar and geothermal air source heat pumps. It is possible, currently, to insulate.
The other part of this that I think I should point out to members is that the current scope in the wording would be too broad. You can't really separate natural gas or propane usage from any of the other buildings on a farm. It's very difficult to do that when they're piped in with one pipe. The buildings' consumption would be very hard to figure out in relation to the other buildings on a farm. Certainly, I don't think what's being intended here is to give the homes and/or other buildings on a farm that are not for livestock an exemption.
Those are some of the arguments and rationales that I'm providing today. There certainly are commercially viable alternatives for the heating and cooling of barns and greenhouses.
Thank you, Chair.