Most of us learned early that you need to keep your promises if you want to be trusted. In politics, however, promises are rarely kept; instead, they're wiggled out of, often after an election, giving politicians a terrible reputation in the trust department. In the last several years, supply management has not prevented Canada negotiating... Read More
Category: Agriculture Policy
Fall is often a time when farmers think about pre-purchasing or putting down some fertilizer in order to save a buck and some time in advance of the coming year. For late 2020, fertilizer tariffs on imports into the U.S. is changing the price dynamic and causing some uncertainty. Russian and Moroccan fertilizer companies have... Read More
The Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) is calling on the federal government to keep its promise on compensation for dairy farmers, stemming from international trade deals that allowed for dairy product access into Canada's supply managed value chain. "When a dairy farmer makes a commitment, his or her word is gold. We hold our government... Read More
The Manitoba government's pledge to begin eliminating its education tax on property in 2021 includes farmland, according to a spokesperson for Finance Minister Scott Fielding. The phased elimination of school taxes on property starting next year was mentioned, without any details, in the Progressive Conservatives' throne speech earlier this month. "Given the challenges we face...Manitobans... Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has harmonized diquat maximum residue limits (MRL) with Canada for group 6c (pulse crops), according to Pulse Canada. The regulation, in effect as of today, establishes tolerance of Group 22 active ingredient diquat in peas, dry beans, and shelled beans, but excludes soybeans. The MRL is set at 0.9... Read More
While we know the meanings of the words carbon and tariff, the term carbon tariff has been floating around in the media lately, and it's a phrase that maybe some of us haven't heard before and might not yet fully understand. The entire concept, however, may have some upsides. "Carbon tariffs, or carbon border adjustments,... Read More
This week marks a "difficult" time in Alberta for the public sector working in agriculture. By the end of this week, it's estimated that over 250 people will have lost — or will be in the process of losing — their jobs with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, with the layoffs being on the agriculture side.... Read More
According to a new book from Dr. Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Ottawa-based think tank MacDonald-Laurier Institute, policy makers can fall into two categories. The new book, Gardeners vs Designers: Understanding the Great Fault Line in Canadian Politics, outlines that there are two types of thinkers when it comes to politics — those... Read More
Fifty years ago, supply management was formed to "save the family farm" and today, the reason for such a system to exist is becoming less clear to some researchers and analysts. A report was recently released on the future of supply management, titled Supply Management 2.0, A Possible Roadmap for the Canadian Dairy Industry. Dr.... Read More
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has given the green light to SpaceX's plan for providing high-speed internet to areas with poor service using low Earth orbit satellites. SpaceX is the space exploration and satellite company owned by Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla. SpaceX has received plenty of attention for... Read More