Carbon tax rebate announced

This week’s provincial budget delivered on a long-time wish of the agriculture sector by nixing the carbon tax rebate program in favour of a point-of-sale reduction similar to what exists in other jurisdictions.

The change is one the BC Agriculture Council and greenhouse growers have been urging for years, most recently during the Ag Days lobbying event in Victoria at the end of October.

The change is set to take effect April 1, 2023, and will have a $20 million value to greenhouse growers this year.

The point-of-sale rebate will deliver the same benefit, but growers won’t have to wait up to 18 months to receive the benefit, helping cash flow.

The former carbon tax relief program covered 80% of the carbon tax that commercial greenhouse growers paid on the natural gas and propane they used for greenhouse heating and carbon dioxide production in the previous year.

Besides the good news for greenhouse growers, the budget allocated $111.8 million to the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, a $4.8 million boost from last year primarily to support operations. The gains were spread across ministry operations, with the exception of a $50,000 decrease for the minister’s office.

The Agricultural Land Commission received a modest $300,000 boost as it marks a half-century, to $5.3 million.

While the budget speech from BC finance minister Katrine Conroy focused on housing and making life more affordable, with nary a reference to farmers and ranchers, the BC Agriculture Council looks forward to details regarding $160 million pledged for food security initiatives.

“Dedicated funding will increase the availability of fresh food in Indigenous communities, increase food processing capacity in BC, and support the development of new and expanded local food production businesses,” budget documents said. “Funding will also improve the resilience of BC food supply by identifying and mitigating the effects of climate change and the increasing intensity of climate events.”

“[BCAC] will be seeking additional information from Ministry of Agriculture staff as to what that will entail,” the council said in a press release.