The president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan says railways should have to cover the cost of having ships wait in port for delayed grain shipments. Todd Lewis has written a letter to Transport Minister Marc Garneau and Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay calling for CN and CP to pay demurrage charges caused by rail... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments have announced funding for provincial programs under the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP). The five-year federal-provincial-territorial agriculture framework is set to begin this weekend (April 1), as Growing Forward 2 comes to an end. Alberta Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay was in Calgary on Monday, where he announced $406 million... Read More
Update, March 29: Bill C-49 passed third reading in the Senate on Thursday afternoon, sending the bill, with the Senate's amendments, back to the House of Commons for MPs to consider after the two-week Easter break. The Senate transport committee has approved several changes to Bill C-49 that had been requested by farm groups. After... Read More
The Manitoba government has decided it will not apply a carbon tax to fuels used for heating or cooling barns and greenhouses or to run grain dryers — an exemption that was not announced when the Pallister government rolled out its carbon pricing plan last fall. The province originally said farm diesel and gasoline would... Read More
When you let your name stand as chair of an organization, you never know what challenges you'll face. For Mark Brock, who stepped in as chair of Grain Farmers of Ontario in 2015, there was little time to adjust to the new leadership role. As he was nominated, the organization was facing one of its... Read More
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association has a new executive, led by a rancher from British Columbia. David Haywood-Farmer of Savona, B.C. assumed the role of president at the CCA's annual general meeting in Ottawa on Friday, following a two-year term as CCA vice president. The implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership is... Read More
The federal Liberals introduced new gun-control legislation in the House of Commons this week, and were quick to dismiss any comparisons to the long-gun registry implemented by the party in the '90s. "It's absolutely not the same thing. There's really no parallel even to make," says Mark Holland, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Public... Read More
Lobbying can be a repetitive and tiresome job, both in Ottawa and in Washington. Sometimes it can feel like your message is just not getting through to the government like you need it to. Such is the case, it can be said, regarding U.S. agriculture groups pressing its government on the benefits of NAFTA and... Read More
The European Commission 'severely restricted' three neonicotinoids — clothiandidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam — in an effort to protect honeybees, but critics say the regulations are doing for the very opposite. "In 2013 the European parliament voted to ban the use of neonics on flowering plant species, because of concerns about bee health," said Simon Kightley,... Read More
Canada is losing farmland each day. It's not technically disappearing, mind you, it's being bought up, levelled, and paved over for new suburbs and shopping malls. It's also being speculated on, sometimes by surprising buyers — maybe it's local farmers, but more likely by an investment fund looking to cash in on the seemingly endless... Read More