Alberta: The Hon. Tara Sawyer was sworn in as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation on May 21, 2026. Alberta still has a functioning GHG market and, under the MOU with Ottawa, will soon set a floor price for offsets.
BCC provided the new Minister with a brief on issues affecting farms and ranches related to carbon.
BCC made six recommendations to the new Minister to strengthen the market.
Recommended Action
- Take action to standardize the commodity of a carbon instrument across all markets engaging Alberta farms and ranches.
- Engage other Ministries to ensure the farm sale of a carbon instrument or certificate has all the protections and payment certainty as enjoyed in Alberta’s livestock sector.
- Engage the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas so that the doubling of offsets produced by carbon capture and storage projects extends to farm offset production.
- Conduct a review of the Marketing of Agricultural Products Act (MAPA) so that there are no impediments to a Board or Commission to be their own products carbon aggregator.
- Engage both the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas and the Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change so that the new Federal soils protocol and others are legal tender for Alberta’s system, and Alberta’s Protocols are acceptable for federal emitter compliance needs.
- Engage the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas to overcome the Ministry’s resistance to the approval of the Canada Grasslands Protocol.
Nova Scotia: BCC sent a note to the Hon. Timothy Halman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and asked two questions.
Will the Ministry be harmonizing the provincial system with the Federal OBPS so that a final emitter in Nova Scotia can choose a compliance system?
My second question is in two parts about farm-based offsets in an OBPS.
As you may be aware, the Federal OBPS allows a final emitter to purchase an offset from a Canadian farmer to meet their compliance needs.
When will Nova Scotia implement protocols for Nova Scotia farmers to sell compliance certificates to Nova Scotia final emitters?
Ottawa: BCC sent a note to the Hon. François-Philippe Champagne outlining that agriculture was missing from the spring economic statement.
Considering the refundable tax credit offered to carbon storage projects, BCC
recommended a refundable tax credit in our ag sector in two areas of carbon storage. The RTC would cover low-disturbance seeding equipment, capital investment in digital fencing, and an RTC to jump-start the capital investment needed for small-business aggregation.
