Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. My name is Marc-André Viau and I'm Équiterre's Director of Government Relations.

I'm going to share my speaking time with my colleague Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, the Climate Policy and Ecological Transition Analyst at Équiterre.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to comment on Bill C-206.

Before addressing the subject itself, I'd like to say a few words about our organization. Équiterre is a non-governmental environmental organization that founded the Family Farmers Network in Quebec. We are currently working on a technological showcase project on health and soil conservation and on regenerative practices. We have also just published a report on soil health in collaboration with the Greenbelt Foundation. We have been working with producers, institutional buyers and decision-makers to come up with ways to build more resilient and sustainable forms of agriculture.

I'd like to say a word about our climate expertise because it's related to today's topic. We recently defended federal jurisdiction over a carbon pricing system before the Supreme Court with our colleagues from the Centre québécois du droit de l'environnement. We're pleased to see that all parties represented in the House support the carbon pricing principle.

As for Bill C-206, things have changed a lot since yesterday and, to be sure, since the bill was initially tabled. First of all, the government announced yesterday in its budget presentation that a portion of the revenues from pollution pricing would go directly to farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario beginning in 2021.These are the provinces that do not have a carbon pricing system and that have a federal safety net. An estimated that $100 million will be sent to these provinces in the first year and the amount would increase as carbon pricing rises.

Most important is the fact that the government has also announced that its priority will would be to pay a minimum of $50 million to farmers across Canada to help finance more energy-efficient grain dryers. Eventually, these investments will compensate for carbon pricing on fossil fuels because producers will be able to make a gradual transition. The announcement was very favourably received by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the National Farmers Union.

I'm sure you'll agree that the federal budget addresses the very real problem raised by this bill, without weakening the carbon pricing principle. We encourage parliamentarians to continue to pursue this path rather than the direction under study today. We agree that farmers need help, but we cannot agree on the systematic erosion of carbon pricing mechanisms. According to the most recent inventory, greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing. The transition needs to begin soon.

We know that farmers are experiencing growing stress because of the pandemic and a number of harmful climate events. We suggest compensation for income losses resulting from the use of fossil fuels in ways that would allow incentives for energy transition to continue. I hope that this option will be offered by the government. Bill C-206 is in my view incompatible with what the government has just proposed in its budget.

I will now give the floor to my colleague, Émile Boisseau-Bouvier.

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