e-4949 (Agriculture)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• Canadian farmers have experienced years of drought conditions;
• Given drought conditions have worsened due in part to last year's seasonal snowpack melting a month earlier in the Prairies, the mountains and across the North, contributing to hot and dry conditions in the summer (per the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan);
• Given that expenses are steadily rising across the sector in part due to the carbon price on barn heating and grain drying;
• Given that the carbon tax is ineffective in reducing emissions;
• Given the federal government is set to miss its 2030 target to cut carbon emissions by at least 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, per the recent audit from the Commissioner of the Environment's office;
• Given that significant foreign investment spent by the federal government has no impact on domestic farmers' ability to mitigate drought conditions in Canada; and
• Measures currently in place are not sufficient to adequately address the agricultural catastrophe facing Canadian farmers.