Hon. Colin Deacon: Honourable senators, I’m rising to speak against the adoption of the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry report and amendment to Bill C-234 and in defence of an unamended bill.

I want to explain why I think the amended bill harms Canadian farm-gate incomes, food security and our efforts to fight climate change.

For my first five years in the Senate, I was a member of the Agriculture Committee. I love that committee totally. I was and continue to be inspired by the producers and processors whom I met through our work. Being on the committee took me back to my youth, when I raised cattle and worked for my cousin after school, on weekends and in the summer, helping in every aspect of his wheat, soybean and corn operation.

Farmers are innovative. To survive, they have to be solution-oriented Jills or Jacks of all trade. Today, Canada’s agricultural sector is even more innovative simply as a way to survive, but they have to do so very carefully because all of the external risks they constantly face.

When I tuned into the Agriculture Committee meeting two weeks ago, I was surprised to see so many new faces. I quickly realized that the attendance of these new members was part of a coordinated effort to push back on Bill C-234. I have the highest regard for my colleagues, but because they came with a single narrow focus, they were likely unaware of the important study on soil health that the committee has been undertaking. The committee members are, as the T-shirt says, “loyal to the soil,” and the topic of soil health is directly related to Bill C-234.

It was evident in the debate in committee that led to the tabling of the report that of the two amendments proposed, the one proposed by Senator Dalphond that made it into the report removed the heating of barns or greenhouses from the list of activities that would be exempted from the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. In other words, if the bill passes with this amendment, barn or greenhouse heating will be subjected to the carbon pricing regime.

I will speak to that specific amendment later, but first I want to speak to how efforts to amend this bill miss a much larger problem or opportunity. Three years ago, I started to really dig into the issue of soil health — pardon the pun. Well before the Agriculture Committee started to study this issue, I became amazed by the powerful role that our agricultural soils could play in helping us to sequester atmospheric carbon into our soil. This field of research is commonly referred to as regenerative agriculture.

The power and potential of regenerative agriculture was so inspiring that it became the focus of my office during the spring and summer of 2020. All of the evidence we heard showed the huge potential that regenerative agriculture could unlock for farmers. We spoke to leading researchers across North America, companies that were developing the new technologies to measure soil carbon affordably and accurately and farmers who had first‑hand experience in implementing regenerative agricultural practices. I was really excited to have found a powerful strategy for sequestering atmospheric greenhouse gases while increasing soil productivity, reducing input costs for farmers and creating new farm-gate revenues thanks to the sale of carbon credits.

This excitement was short-lived. I engaged with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and realized that the systems and incentives designed to support and reward farmers for sequestering carbon are deeply flawed.

As an example, the farmers who were early practitioners and early adopters of soil carbon sequestration are not allowed to receive any of the financial benefits for being trailblazers in this space. Remarkably, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada officials who came to the Agriculture Committee — AGFO — restated this decision to not reward early adopters when they testified before the committee in our soil study.

Colleagues, this is why we need to pass an unamended Bill C-234.

To simplify the question, how does it make any sense to punish farmers for the carbon-based fuels they must use to produce our food, when the market-based incentives to reward them for the carbon they sequester are blocked or ignored? If we are to achieve our net-zero targets by 2050, we cannot just limit our production of greenhouse gases. We must also begin to pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Farmers can play an incredibly powerful role in that process.

For instance, we found evidence that agriculture can be a net carbon sink, having the potential to sequester between 11% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions — which is more than what the sector produces — and up to 82% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Senators Black and Cotter travelled to Glasgow in the summer of 2022 for the World Soil Congress. What they found is that Canada is a global laggard in the public policy area of soil carbon sequestration. There are excellent policy examples to follow that are delivering reliable results to farmers and governments in countries like Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States.

These incentive plans are needed because, globally, it is recognized that farmers are constantly managing risks and variables that are completely outside of their control. Between global trade challenges such as China’s canola ban, our ban on Russian fertilizer, increasingly severe weather events in terms of droughts and overly wet springs or falls, and agricultural stabilization programs that delay relief for 18 months or more, our farmers are going through a lot.

Farming is a very risky business. In my youth, some years I made more money per hour than my cousin netted per hour from his entire farming operation. Sadly, this reality still exists today. A recent study from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture showed that total farm debt in Canada rose to $138 billion in 2022, up 15% in just two years. Meanwhile, the operating expenses for farmers also increased 21.2% last year alone. As a result, it is now more difficult for our producers to acquire and even maintain essential equipment. When you consider the fact that farmers currently don’t have the right to repair their own equipment — something that has been a money-saving essential in the past — the costs rise even further.

Colleagues, I think you will agree that these are very tough times. However, our farmers continue to innovate, not because of an abundance of incentives and opportunities but, rather, in spite of their absence. An unamended Bill C-234 will free up cash flow and capital that will allow farmers to invest in innovative alternatives.

I find it deeply concerning when I hear the argument that this amendment will somehow push farmers and other companies to innovate faster as they search for alternative heating solutions. Specifically, the amendment undermines the existing efforts of our farmers, who are already trying to do as much as they can with very little financial support. I am concerned that this amendment not only goes against the intention of the original bill but jeopardizes ongoing practices to improve soil health and fight climate change.

It also does not consider the conditions needed to produce low‑cost, efficient alternative solutions that farmers can adopt at scale. Colleagues, as you know, I used to be an entrepreneur. I have successfully commercialized products and sold them globally. I can tell you from experience that it takes much longer for new, innovative products to enter Canadian markets than it does elsewhere. Governments across all levels need to address regulatory stagnation and enable the conditions needed to catalyze private sector efforts in scaling public policy solutions.

Let me bring these points to life. In August, my team and I visited agricultural businesses across Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. One business was run by Luke teStroete, a third-generation chicken farmer. His state-of-the-art facility was truly impressive. It includes measures that are crucial to maximizing animal health, fighting avian influenza and reducing energy consumption. It included everything from specialized lighting, ventilation and energy-efficient trucks to an entirely digitized farm management system.

However, his next big planned investment in solar power was being delayed because of limitations in Nova Scotia for selling power back to the grid. This investment would help him to reduce his propane use, which is his only option right now for his operation. He is therefore advocating heavily for feed-in tariff rates to be changed to allow for his innovative, climate-friendly investment, but he’s being prevented.

So I ask again: How can we justify penalizing farmers for the emissions they are already working to reduce when we are not creating the conditions to allow them to make innovative, climate-forward investments on the farm?

Rather than amending Bill C-234, let’s focus on delivering an agile regulatory system across different levels of government that catalyzes, rather than prevents, the implementation of affordable existing technologies that both reduce atmospheric carbon and farm costs. We cannot allow our farmers, such as Luke, to continue paying higher costs with no support.

Colleagues, helping farmers to innovate, using carrots and not sticks, will be important to keep in mind as we reflect on how to address the critical challenge of rising food security needs.

The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph has predicted that, at our current rate of population growth, our species will have to deliver more food in the next 35 years than in the previous 10,000 years combined. It’s a frightful challenge, especially when we consider the extent to which we currently take our farmers for granted and the fast pace at which we are planting the last crop on our most productive farmland. In Ontario, for example, the current rate at which homes, malls and roads are being planted on our farmland is removing over 300 acres every single day of our most productive farmland. This is incredibly alarming.

I’d like to leave you with one last thought before I wrap up. You may recall the debate over Bill C-208 in the Forty-third Parliament in June 2021. It was an act to amend the Income Tax Act that would allow for the equitable intergenerational transfer of a small business, family farm or fishing operation.

After some considerable debate, we chose not to amend that bill, which had, similarly to Bill C-234, achieved cross-party support in the House of Commons. We heard warnings from the Department of Finance Canada that delivering fairness to intergenerational transfers of farm, fishing or small business operations would unleash a wave of tax evasion and cost untold billions.

In the end, because we held fast, the government chose to work with stakeholders to develop some simple safeguards that were put in place in Budget 2023. I’m proud of the fact that the Senate held firm, accepted that bill unamended and, consequently, caused the government to work with stakeholders to find an equitable solution. I can only hope that we will choose the same path here.

Colleagues, let me summarize why I’m asking you to reject this amendment at the report stage and move to approve an unamended Bill C-234. The amendment will nominally reduce farmers’ use of fossil fuels. Additionally, it risks driving them to convert from natural gas or propane to diesel because, for them, it is not subject to carbon tax. Passing this bill unamended will free up financial resources farmers need at a time of enormous financial strain — and capital to invest in innovative alternatives to meaningfully address the climate crisis. We cannot continue to punish farmers for the carbon they use to produce our food when incentives to reward them for sequestering carbon and other greenhouse gases are absent. This is especially important at a time when they are carrying an enormous debt load and other expenses that have risen across their businesses.

Colleagues, we have an opportunity to do the right thing for Canada’s food producers, helping them to increase farm gate incomes while sequestering greenhouse gases to achieve climate objectives. Our food security, our ability to respond to the climate crisis and the resilience of Canada’s agricultural sector depend on our rejecting this report and passing Bill C-234 unamended. Thank you, colleagues.