Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Todd Lewis. I’m a grain, lentil and canola farmer from Gray, Saskatchewan, and second vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. I am joined today by our environment and science policy director, Frank Annau. The CFA is Canad

Agriculture committee  I think farmers, especially in western Canada, with a lot of the technology such as direct seeding.... Zero till was invented in western Canada. It was invented in Saskatchewan. We see lots of that technology being exported and the manufacturing numbers out of Saskatchewan that.

Agriculture committee  No. It was a drive to efficiency. It's an example of farmers being driven. It's a happy coincidence that it is carbon-friendly, but it is a drive to efficiency, using fewer passes to put a crop in, less fuel and fewer inputs. All of those things are very important. Our technolog

Agriculture committee  Not that I understand. In western Canada, specifically, we have a lot of issues with the money that's paid on grain transportation, for instance, with carbon tax. The railroads pass that tax on diesel fuel and their operations directly to farmers. In a lot of cases, it's thousan

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. Variable rate technology and GPS.... Far more efficiency in passes in the field and lower numbers of passes in crops are a huge advantage for producers here in Canada.

Agriculture committee  Do you mean transition to not using fossil fuels?

Agriculture committee  Research and development and putting money towards improving existing technologies and new technologies.... Farmers are early adopters of technology and always have been, so as they become available and if they make practical sense, farmers will use those practices. As for what

Agriculture committee  With regard to the previous question, if it makes sense economically, farmers will pursue it. At the same time, it has to be a balancing act. You can't have things over-regulated. The money needs to stay in farmers' pockets so they can make those choices to improve their technolo

Agriculture committee  I would say they're equally important if you need to dry your grain. Remember, it's not something people are doing just because. It's to save that grain. If it's not at the proper moisture content, it will spoil, and it will become unsellable. You'll have all kinds of problems du

Agriculture committee  It's a moving target. If a sunset clause is something that could be used to recognize when new technology is available.... I'll use the example of grain drying. The burning of straw to dry grain sounds like a practical solution, but in a lot of western Canada, for instance, wher

Agriculture committee  I would say it's appropriate. As I say, it's going to be a moving target. If 10 years is enough...or maybe we'll have new technology in five. A lot of things can move at a very quick pace.

Agriculture committee  To go back to the example from the professor about offsets and so on, and the recognition of it, that's an important part of what producers want and need to see, but that needs time to be developed as well. We're not there yet, but we are paying this carbon tax today. It's coming

Agriculture committee  We have examples. I know people who haven't bought new dryers because of the cost involved. They're not cheap things to buy, and they're not something that's used every year in a lot of grain operations, so they stick with the old dryer. Once again, they're paying the carbon tax

Agriculture committee  It's in Canada. I think there's going to be a made-in-Canada solution. With the innovative manufacturers and so on that we have in Canada, if there's a solution to be had it will be found here in Canada, I believe, anyway. The other part we can't forget about is the livestock he

Agriculture committee  I am a former president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, and some of the research we did showed that in some cases farmers are not only net zero; they're net positive if we can get sequestration recognized. It's not just in crop production. Our livesto