OFA provides comments to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food to approve Bill C-206. OFA strongly supports expanding the list of qualifying farming fuels that are exempt from the fuel charge as outlined in Bill C-206 to include marketable natural gas and propane. As written, Bill C-206 would provide a broader exemption from the fuel charge for fuels used in primary agricultural production and serve to recognize the significant and increasing financial burden the fuel charge places on farmers. OFA has long argued that the nature of agricultural production and marketing, and the fact that energy (fuel) demand by farmers tends to be unaffected by price, makes the fuel charge an ineffective and inappropriate policy tool to drive down emissions in the agricultural sector. A rising fuel charge on fuels used in agricultural production makes our farmers uncompetitive and viewed in this context, OFA believes the fuel charge as it is currently applied is punitive and only serves to tax our farm businesses with little or no meaningful benefit to the environment. Though Bill C-206 makes changes to the definition of qualifying farm fuel, we believe that it must also call for a change to the definition of eligible farming machinery to explicitly allow for natural gas and propane to be used to generate heat for livestock barns and in grain drying.