Carbon tax on natural gas is another hurdle Alberta farmers face

Southern Alberta farmers and livestock producers have some tough challenges to face — drought conditions have caused difficulties.

A Lethbridge-area farmer and livestock producer says high carbon tax on natural gas is another hurdle.

“When I sell a pound of beef or a bushel of grain, I can’t say, ‘Well guys, sorry, our costs went up 50 cents on this product, so instead of three dollars, it’s going to be $3.50,'” said Leighton Kolk, owner of Kolk Farms Ltd. and K3 Seeds. “The marketplace often tells us, you get three dollars and that’s what you get — it doesn’t matter what your carbon tax is.”

Carbon tax has been a hot topic in the province since the federal government said last Thursday it would put a pause on carbon taxes on home heating oil — a benefit to those living in the Atlantic provinces.

Kolk’s various operations use a lot of natural gas for heating barns, places where equipment is kept and housing for employees.

“The carbon tax on that particular bill was $5,900 so the carbon tax was a greater portion of the bill than the gas we got,” he told CityNews.

“The reality is, we live in Alberta — it was 19 degrees here yesterday. There’s nothing on God’s green earth that can keep the temperature inside a building, other than energy.”

Kolk says the wrong pocket is being picked when primary production is hit with taxes like this.

He’d like to see a stop or reduction of the tax “until such time there’s here’s sufficient other means to do your business without handcuffing us against all of our neighbours — including the Americans who don’t pay it, Australia, New Zealand, all of the place that produce stuff that we all go to the same markets [for].”