Does anyone know the actual cost of the carbon tax? 





I came from the local A&W drive-thru and sat down and wrote this column. Why? Because three chicken fingers cost $8 plus fries and a drink. Wow, that will be the last time I order those delicious chicken fingers. The bill was considerably higher than a week ago so I asked the server why so much more money. She said some food items had gone up in price so that you know. There was nothing she could do so I did not argue.  
We are into spring, a time of optimism and renewal that has not changed. But what the carbon tax and should the government move ahead on fertilizer emission cutbacks will and could have a greater effect on those who produce the food and those who consume it.   
Gunter Jochum, a farmer at Elie, MB and president of the Wheat Growers, said when the Feds first introduced the carbon tax, he and other farm group representatives met in Ag Minister Bibeau’s office with great dialogue when they first came in with a carbon tax. Both times other farm group leaders said the same thing, that this carbon tax, for example, is very hurtful to the Canadian economy and not only that, to everyday Canadians. Everybody was singing from the same song sheet but in the last four years, none of those groups had frequented that office. “Bibeau is cherry-picking which groups she meets with and the government is ignoring the everyday farmers that grow the grain that gets turned into food. Cherry-picking special interest groups that will follow the government’s ideological outlook and ideas of how to farm how Canadians are to live.”  
Former Wheat Growers president and member of parliament Ted Menzies spoke from a panel at the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual meeting in January, “You think that agriculture at this point has any clout? No. It’s all coming from climate and environment. They’re the ones that are calling the shots. So, it’s a real challenge that farmers and consumers face.”  
What does this mean for the consumer who has already tightened that grocery money belt because of the last three years?  
First, here is what the hidden tax cost Jochum and his family farm in 2022. “On my farm last year, the hidden cost, the carbon tax is close to $40,000, that’s a hidden tax. One of our members crunched the numbers, which works out to be on my farm and is only going up. We can’t afford a hit like that.” 
That is about $13 to 15 dollars an acre. Well, you may say that is a little but you tag it on all other items down the food chain and many consumers will be ditching healthy foods for foods that cost less and are more affordable. Still, that same carbon tax of $65 a metric tonne on April 1 will also affect those less affordable foods.  
With the ever-increasing carbon tax on things that most people know or have any idea why not have the federal government do a cost analysis as to where this will take our country? So far no one seems to know or even care in Ottawa. It’s like a hidden tax, and we must determine what the government uses for the extra tax grab.  
It is spring, and farmers move forward with optimism because of good commodity prices, good crops in 2022, lots of moisture to fill rivers, streams and dugouts, and good start-up moisture once the snow melts and farmers plant the 2023 crop. •