The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association believes that the coalition opposing the federal carbon tax is the right and necessary step.

Last week marked the Province’s legal court challenge in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeals over the Federal Governments jurisdiction to impose a Carbon Tax effective April 1st. 

Jim Wickett (of Rosetown) is Chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.

He says the federal plan does not acknowledge the carbon sequestering and other steps that the agriculture community has already undertaken.

“We went to zero minimum till; you don’t see guys burning all their stubble. It’s just one thing after another.  You know farmers realize this; we earn our living from this.  When you go down to Ottawa and you talk to them you know there twenty-something idealists from Toronto that just dreamed up something. They look at you and you're like we’ve been doing this for twenty, thirty years what are you talking about.”

Over the years, many farmers have adopted environmentally friendly farming practices.

Wickett says people in Ottawa, especially in the Environment Department, seem oblivious to what’s been done on the farms.

“There’s certainly no recognition you know for even the zero till. The increase in organic matter in most of our soils, while it’s only one or two percent, you extrapolate that out into pounds or tonnes of carbon that’s been left in the soil and it's massive it’s in the billions of pounds. No recognition for that and no even desire to understand that part of things.”

He says every single thing that you need or consume is going to have a carbon tax on it.

“The food you eat that’s delivered in a truck, train, or plane to the grocery store.  The school buses taking your kids to school, the grain being delivered to the elevator or the parts and equipment delivered to the dealership. All of it will be taxed.”

Wickett says overall the Wheat Growers support the Saskatchewan government’s ‘Made in Saskatchewan Climate Change Strategy’.