Senator Batters: Senator Gold, I guarantee you that any one of Canada’s farmers could build a barn for much less than $8 million. This bill passed the House of Commons with all-party support. Subjecting barns and farm buildings to the Trudeau government’s punitive carbon tax puts our agricultural producers at a global disadvantage. Your government solutions for farmers are not rooted in practicality or common sense. When will this government offer Canadian farmers more than just hot air and axe this punishing carbon tax?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, last week at the Senate Agriculture Committee, Trudeau-appointed senators — including your own government deputy leader — gutted a Conservative’s bill to exempt farmers from paying carbon tax on propane and natural gas. One amendment stripped from the bill heating and cooling for barns and farm buildings. The very next day, a news report revealed that the Trudeau government spent $8 million of taxpayers’ money to replace a barn at Rideau Hall with a two‑level, zero-carbon, heated car garage they’ve dubbed “the barn” — talk about not worth the cost.

Senator Gold, is this the Trudeau government’s prototype of a brave, new, carbon-neutral future on Canadian farms? Why is the Trudeau government so determined to stick it to the very people who produce Canadians’ food?