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NEWS RELEASE |
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| September 29 , 2005 | For
Immediate Release |
MOST FARMERS PAYING OVER $100 A DAY IN TAXES ON FUEL ALONE
“Farmers
are calling daily saying this is the last nail in their coffin.”
OTTAWA – Garry Breitkreuz, federal Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, today stood up in Parliament and demanded the government immediately do something about the additional fuel cost for Canada’s agricultural producers:
| Two and a half years ago, I informed Parliament that the most common complaint I was hearing from farmers in my riding was that they were fed up with the high price of fuel. Imagine what they are saying today! Liberals are telling Canadians that they won’t lower taxes because high gas taxes are helping municipalities and the provinces. This is false. Funding for infrastructure and our communities will only amount to five cents a litre (and not until 2010). This is a far cry from the forty cents a litre every Canadian is paying in gasoline taxes today. Many grain producers at this time of year are paying at least $400 a day for fuel. That’s well over $100 a day in taxes alone! In 1969, gas was about 6 cents a litre, and farmers were getting about a $1.40 a bushel for their wheat. Today, gas prices are twelve times higher, yet wheat prices are barely twice as much. It’s obvious that something has to change. Isn’t it sad that the Finance Minister, who lives in Saskatchewan, won’t lower gas taxes? |
As the price of fuel reached astronomical highs last week, one of the industries hit hardest was the agriculture industry. The enormous fuel costs are coming during the height of the Canadian harvest, a time when producers have numerous machines running at once, and any potential profit on the farm is being burnt in the form of fuel.
“How can we expect our producers to survive?” asked Breitkreuz. Why can’t Ralph Goodale lower taxes? After all, for every one-cent per litre increase in gas prices, the federal government is raking in an additional $32-million per year.
In addition to the high input costs, producers are still facing problems with CAIS, the unavailability of rail cars, and commodity prices that are below the cost of production. And now, to make matters even worse, a large portion of the Yorkton-Melville riding has been flooded by torrential rains, making harvest very difficult and reducing quality and yield.
“The Liberal government can’t expect our producers to hang on when they are losing money every year. Our farmers are among the hardest-working and most-dedicated Canadians – they provide this country with food. Unless there is a substantial and immediate change in the way this government thinks, the 2005 crop will be the last harvested by many producers,” concluded Breitkreuz.
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