U.S. dairy groups are not pleased with the Canadian government's proposal for resolving the dispute over dairy tariff rate quotas (TRQs) as part of the the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement (commonly referred to as the USMCA). The first dispute settlement panel established under the trade deal said Canada had violated the agreement in its dairy... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
Manitoba Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson has introduced a bill that would end the province's single desk marketing system for table potatoes and root vegetables. Bill 12, "The Peak of the Market Reorganization Act," would transition Peak of the Market from a non-profit regulated marketing agency into an independent company. It would also remove the requirement... Read More
Farm groups and agriculture industry organizations are sounding the alarm about the potential for a strike by Canadian Pacific Railway employees in the coming weeks. More than three thousand engineers, conductors, and other railway workers who work for CP and are members in the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have voted in favour of a strike... Read More
Coming off an incredibly strong year for beef exports, and looking ahead to the future, the global demand for North American protein continues to be very strong. Just how strong the year ahead may be is contingent on several aspects, but Kent Bacus, senior director of international trade and market access for the National Cattlemen's... Read More
There has been no shortage of opinions since the January 15 trucker vaccine mandate came into force. The mandate requires all travellers, regardless of their job, to be fully vaccinated before crossing the Canada-U.S. border. The mandate coming into force has served as a watershed moment for the COVID-19 pandemic, spurring protests in downtown Ottawa... Read More
Proponents of a new private member's bill that would remove natural gas and propane used on farms for grain drying and barn heating from the federal carbon pricing system are hoping it will proceed on an accelerated timeline, given the fact the bill is very similar in wording and intent to a previous bill that... Read More
The Canadian government announced Tuesday, February 8, 2022, that table potatoes from Prince Edward Island would begin moving into Puerto Rico beginning today, February 9. Potato movement from the island province to the U.S. and even other provinces has been on hold since late November, 2021, after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stopped exports... Read More
Farm organizations from across the spectrum of Canadian agriculture welcomed the introduction of Bill C-234 in the House of Commons on Monday. The private member's bill sponsored by Ben Lobb, the Conservative MP for Huron-Bruce, would amend the federal government's carbon pricing legislation to provide an exemption from the carbon tax for natural gas and... Read More
British Columbia farmers who suffered extraordinary damages during November’s devastating floods will have access to up to $228 million in federal-provincial government support. Marie-Claude Bibeau, federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Lana Popham, B.C.’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, announced the Canada-BC Flood Recovery for Food Security Program on Monday. The program will... Read More
For every dollar in income taken home by Canadian farm families in 2019, over 64 cents was earned "off the farm," according to a new report from Statistics Canada. StatsCan published its farm family income data for 2019 — pre-pandemic economy, of course — on January 28. Based on tax records, the agency says the... Read More