Ontario’s new Environmental Commissioner assures farmers she is no threat –backs down on the coloured diesel fuel issue
By Maynard van der Galien
Coloured diesel fuel and the new Environmental Commissioner was a hot topic for discussion at the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) Eastern Summit meeting held in Kemptville on January 21. A director from the Dundas Federation of Agriculture said the office of the Environmental Commissioner should be shut down as the recently appointed commissioner Dianne Saxe is negative to farmers and she has stated that the $190 million farmers receive is “subsidized” coloured diesel. They have a huge staff as do the other agencies, he said.
Farmers across the province have reacted angrily to the proclamation from Ontario’s new Environment Commissioner that one of her first priorities will be to advise the Ontario Legislature to, “end cheap diesel fuel for farmers.”
“We in Ontario, according to the provincial budget, subsidize diesel consumption by $190 million a year,” Saxe says. “That’s not providing better outcomes, it’s not providing income support. It’s not targeted. … Fossil-fuel subsidies do not reduce inequality, they increase inequality. Because most of the money goes to the better-off,” she has stated.
Although small farmers are the most visible beneficiaries of tax-free fuel, plenty of it just helps large companies that Ontario should be looking to for innovation, Saxe says. Cheap fuel sabotages that goal. “It just makes it cheaper for them to use more diesel,” she says.
“We don’t have a true level playing field in transportation, in agriculture, we don’t have it in land development. We have a regulatory system that got us what we’ve got,” says Dianne Saxe, who’s been the province’s environment commissioner for a month. She comes to the job after a 40-year career as an environmental lawyer, the consensus choice of all three parties at Queen’s Park.
Saxe is the daughter of the late Dr. Morton Shulman, MPP from 1967 to 1975 and renowned Canadian businessman, broadcaster, columnist, coroner and physician.
OFA President Don McCabe, who attended the Kemptville Summit, said Saxe is an advisor only and the office of the Environmental Commissioner does not make legislation, but its role is to advise the Legislature on matters pertaining to its portfolio. McCabe says the $190 million was incorrectly labelled an agriculture-only subsidy.
“Unfortunately, she got some bad advice here,” says McCabe, emphasizing Saxe can only advise government. “She cannot change legislation.”
Saxe is the first new environment commissioner in 15 years, after her three-term predecessor Gord Miller left to run for the Greens in the last federal election.
In a personal interview last Friday with Farms.com, Saxe assured Ontario’s farmers that, if there is concern she is planning to cause any financial hardship, that “nothing could be further from the truth.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight,” said the keen canoeist, kayaker and cross-country skier. “I’m not interested in taking that $190 million away from farmers. That’s not on the table. But I’ve spoken with many people who simply are not convinced that $190 million is actually getting to our farmers in the most effective way.
OFA Research Director Peter Jeffery gave the eastern Ontario directors at the Kemptville Summit a detailed presentation on coloured diesel and said the 14.3 cents a litre “road tax” on clear diesel was introduced to fix the wear and tear on the roads. Since farm machinery doesn’t tear up the roads, there is no need to charge that tax, so it’s not a subsidy. Coloured diesel is not only used by farmers, it’s used by the mining industry, forestry, road construction and in commercial marine vessels. It’s also used in road graders.
Based on a fuel price survey last week, Jeffery gave the following figures:
Pre-tax diesel 66.8 cents/litre
Federal Excise Tax 4.0 cents/litre
Subtotal 70.8 cents/litre
HST (13%) 9.2 cents/litre
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Total 80.0 cents/litre
The Province gets no tax on coloured diesel. On clear diesel they get 14.3 cents a litre. Jeffrey was asked how much of the $190 million was actually used by farmers. He said he has no figures on that.
