Agriculture committee  I don't agree that it would be a fair statement. I think it's important to note that when it comes to innovation, the actual farmers who are purchasing natural gas and propane are not the innovators in that sector. They are customers, just like we would be as a household. I think currently the price signals on-farm are extremely high.

Agriculture committee  There's nothing that's scalable or viable at a macro level or an action level. There are niche things that we could certainly do, such as pelletization in small instances, but I think what we saw in the first panel was a lot of theory. What Scott and I represent as the ACA is the realities on-farm.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the invitation to appear today on Bill C-234. My name is Dave Carey. I have the pleasure of serving as co-chair of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance, or ACA. I'm joined today by my fellow co-chair, Scott Ross. I will be sharing my time with him. ACA is a first-of-its-kind coalition of 15 national farm organizations dedicated to working collaboratively on agri-environmental policy.

Agriculture committee  Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec have hydro electrification. In Saskatchewan and Alberta, it is not possible. The grid does not allow it, or it's not hydro-based; it's actually coal-based in some regards. Unfortunately, the answer is no.

Agriculture committee  I think he's right. We don't know exactly where the baseline is—the measurement—so, if anything, we need to take a step back. Some of the soil health testing methods we're using are almost a century old. Again, are we looking at carbon saturation, or how much soil can be pulled in?

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. I'll see if Scott has anything to add at the end. A big driving force behind the ACA coming to fruition was that, after December 2020, “A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy” had around 65 bullet points, many of which had an agri-environmental focus.

Agriculture committee  Just briefly to your point, Mr. Drouin, I think that is a progression in the technology, being able to use pelletization of wood. There is a carbon intensity that comes with that, too. Previously, most biodigesters required farmers to take additional passes on their fields, take up that stubble and take up that extra material after harvest, which requires more passes burning gas or diesel.

Agriculture committee  I would quickly add that I think there is the acknowledgement that the rebate does not make farmers and ranchers whole from the cost of carbon, which will go up on April 1. I also want to point out there's a growing amount of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, that reducing farmers' or ranchers' working capital throughout the year, with the hope of a rebate at the end, is actually a disincentive to making investments on farm to increase their competitiveness and environmental sustainability.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear today on behalf of the Agriculture Carbon Alliance or ACA. My name is Dave Carey. I serve as co-chair along with my colleague, Scott Ross, who I will be splitting my time with. ACA is a first-of-its-kind coalition of 14 national farm organizations that unites every major commodity and collectively represents more than 190,000 farm businesses and $76 billion in farm market receipts in 2021.