By Canadian Press

Feds won’t release report on carbon tax costs for grain dryers on prairies

Jun 10, 2020 | 3:05 PM

OTTAWA — The federal government will not release the data it relied on to decide against exempting fuels used in grain dryers from the national price on pollution.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says her department analyzed information through the Agriculture Taxation Data Program to calculate the carbon tax applied to grain dryers would cost an individual $210 and $819 per year.

She says that is at most 0.42 per cent of revenues, which is not high enough to warrant exempting grain dryers as it did for fuels used to heat greenhouses or run farm vehicles.

But Bibeau’s spokesman says the analysis won’t be made public at this time, pointing instead to a two-year-old report that estimated the costs the carbon tax could add to farms.

Alberta Conservative MP John Barlow says his office has been flooded with bills submitted by farmers that he says show Bibeau’s estimates are “completely out of touch.”

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Barlow says some farmers are showing bills in excess of $10,000 for the carbon tax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2020.

The Canadian Press