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Mark Carney’s carbon tax plan hurts farmers

Published

1 week ago

5 minute read

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Gage Haubrich

Liberal leadership front-runner Mark Carney recently announced his carbon tax plan and here are some key points.

It’s expensive for Canadians.

It’s even more expensive for farmers.

Carney announced he would immediately remove the consumer carbon tax if he became prime minister.

That sounds like good news, but it’s important to read the fine print.

Carney went on and announced that he would be “integrating a new consumer carbon credit market into the industrial pricing system.” Carney also said he would “improve and tighten” the industrial carbon tax and impose carbon tax tariffs on imports into Canada.

If that sounds like Carney isn’t getting rid of the carbon tax, that’s because he isn’t. He’s trying to hide the costs from Canadians by imposing higher carbon taxes on businesses.

What that means is that Carney’s plan would tax businesses and then businesses will pass those costs onto consumers.

That also means farmers.

Under the current carbon tax, farmers have an exemption from the carbon tax on the gas and diesel they use on their farm. The hidden industrial carbon tax is applied directly to industry. Businesses are forced to pay the carbon tax if they emit above the government’s prescribed limit.

But businesses don’t just swallow those costs. They pass them on. The trucking industry is a great example.

“Due to razor thin margins in the trucking industry, these added costs cannot be absorbed and must be passed on to customers,” said the Canadian Trucking Alliance when analyzing the current Trudeau carbon tax.

The same concept applies to the Carney scheme.

If Carney removes the consumer carbon tax and replaces it with a higher tax on businesses under the hidden industrial carbon tax, that means more costs for farmers.

There isn’t any exemption for farmers under the industrial carbon tax. Oil and gas refineries will be paying a higher carbon tax and they will be forced to pass that cost onto their consumers. Farmers use a lot of fuel.

The pain doesn’t stop there. Farmers also use a lot of fertilizer and Carney’s carbon tax means higher costs for fertilizer plants. Then farmers will be stuck paying more for fertilizer.

Some businesses, like those fertilizer plants, could pack up and move production south. But farmers are still going to need fertilizer. Carney’s plan compounds the pain with carbon tax tariffs.

Fertilizer is only one example. If Canadian farmers need to buy a part to fix equipment that can only come from the U.S., it could be more expensive because of Carney’s carbon tax tariffs.

This will hurt Canadian farmers when they’re buying supplies. But it’ll also hurt when farmers when they go to market. Canadian farmers compete with farmers around the world and majority of them aren’t paying carbon taxes.

Farmers wouldn’t be at a disadvantage because American farmers are smarter or farm better, but because, under Carney’s carbon tax, they would be stuck paying costs competitors don’t have to pay. And farmers know this all too well.

“My competitors to the south of me in the United States do not pay that [carbon] tax, so now my cost goes up and I have no alternative,” said Jeff Barlow, a corn, wheat and soybean farmer in Ontario. “By penalizing me there’s nothing else that I can do but just be penalized.”

And if farmers won’t be the only ones hurt.

Families across Canada are struggling with grocery prices and increasing the cost of production for farmers certainly won’t lower those prices.

Carney says that he wants to cancel the consumer tax because it’s too “divisive.” That statement misses the nail completely and hammers the thumb. Canadians don’t want to get rid of the carbon tax because of perception, they want to get rid of it because it makes life more expensive.

Carney needs to commit to getting rid of carbon taxes, not rebranding the failed policy into something that could end up costing Canadians and farmers even more.

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Elon reveals millions of people in Social Security database between the ages of 100-159

Published on February 18, 2025

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MXM logo MxM News

Quick Hit:

Elon Musk revealed on X that millions of individuals in the Social Security database are recorded as over 100 years old, with no death record attached. The billionaire suggested the findings could indicate massive fraud within the system.

Key Details:

  • Musk shared a chart showing over 20 million people in the database listed as 100+ years old, including 3.9 million between 130-139, 3.5 million between 140-149, and 1.3 million between 150-159.
  • The 2020 U.S. Census recorded just over 80,000 people aged 100 or older, casting doubt on the accuracy of the Social Security data.
  • Musk suggested that the Social Security system is riddled with inconsistencies and could be facilitating large-scale fraud.

Diving Deeper:

On Sunday, Elon Musk took to X with a shocking revelation about the Social Security database, suggesting it contains massive inaccuracies—possibly enabling widespread fraud. Musk pointed out that millions of individuals are recorded as being 100 years or older, yet their death status remains unmarked.

“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk quipped, sharing a chart showing over 20 million centenarians in the system.

The data he highlighted included staggering figures: more than 3.9 million individuals listed as 130-139 years old, 3.5 million aged 140-149, and over 1.3 million aged 150-159. These numbers are vastly out of sync with U.S. Census data, which recorded just over 80,000 people aged 100 or older in 2020.

Musk didn’t stop there. He went on to criticize the complexity and lack of oversight in Social Security operations, calling the system’s logic “INSANE.” According to Musk, “No one person actually knows how it works. The payment files that move between Social Security and Treasury have significant inconsistencies that are not reconciled. It’s wild.”

Perhaps the most damning accusation Musk made was in a follow-up post where he warned that the Social Security system might be one of the largest fraud schemes in history. “There are FAR more ‘eligible’ Social Security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history,” he posted.

 

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DOGE discovers $4.7T in untraceable U.S. Treasury payments

Published on February 18, 2025

By

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Quick Hit:

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), established under President Donald Trump, has discovered that nearly $4.7 trillion in U.S. Treasury payments were processed with an optional, often blank identification code—making them nearly impossible to track. The revelation has prompted immediate changes to federal financial reporting, mandating full transparency on these transactions moving forward.

Key Details:

  • DOGE found that the Treasury Access Symbol (TAS), a key financial identifier, was frequently left blank in transactions totaling $4.7 trillion.
  • The Trump administration’s watchdog agency worked with the U.S. Treasury to close this loophole, making the TAS field mandatory for all federal payments.
  • DOGE continues to uncover and eliminate government waste, already reporting an estimated $55 billion in taxpayer savings through spending cuts and contract renegotiations.

Diving Deeper:

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Elon Musk under President Donald Trump’s administration, has made a bombshell discovery regarding federal spending. According to the agency, $4.7 trillion in payments were funneled through the U.S. Treasury without clear tracking due to an often-missing Treasury Access Symbol (TAS). This identifier, which links government expenditures to specific budget items, was optional in the federal system—resulting in payments that were nearly impossible to trace.

DOGE announced the finding on X, explaining that the TAS field has now been made mandatory for all federal payments. “As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going,” the agency stated. This change is expected to bring a new level of transparency to federal finances, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are properly accounted for.

The revelation coincides with DOGE’s broader mission to root out wasteful government spending. Since its creation via executive order, the agency has reported $55 billion in estimated savings, achieved through fraud detection, renegotiations of contracts, and regulatory cuts. The agency is also working to make its cost-cutting measures fully transparent, committing to updating its financial data twice per week with the goal of transitioning to real-time reporting.

Musk’s leadership at DOGE has sparked both praise and controversy. While conservatives applaud the agency’s aggressive stance on reducing bloated government programs, critics—particularly among Democrats—have raised concerns over its authority to access federal data and cancel government contracts. Attorneys general from 14 states have filed a lawsuit aiming to block DOGE from federal systems, arguing that its executive authority over financial oversight is an overreach.

Despite legal challenges, DOGE recently won a key court battle, with a federal judge in Washington declining to temporarily block its access to sensitive data from several agencies, including the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. This ruling is seen as a green light for the Trump administration’s cost-cutting mission to continue.

With the U.S. national debt at record highs, DOGE’s latest discovery raises serious questions about past government financial management. The $4.7 trillion in untraceable payments underscores why the agency was created in the first place—and why Washington’s establishment has resisted its oversight.

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