Ontario’s minimum wage is set to climb to $15 per hour by 2019 and that could have a significant impact on agriculture in the province. Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie says labour intensive sectors such as horticulture and greenhouse operations will likely suffer the greatest impact from the Liberal government’s announcement this week... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The federal government is moving toward establishing a national food policy that will revolve around four "pillars," but details on what it will look like beyond that have yet to be determined, according to Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay. The minister launched consultations, including an online survey, on establishing a national food policy in a speech... Read More
With the United States' exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the new administration says it's focusing on bilateral agreements instead of multilateral deals in its attempted execution of an "America first" ideology on all things, including trade. Now that President Trump has formally notified Congress of his desire to renegotiate NAFTA, the countdown has started... Read More
There's been a change in the top public servant role within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As of Monday (May 29, 2017), Chris Forbes is the new Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. Forbes replaces Andrea Lyon, who has moved on to become the Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council and Associate Secretary to the Cabinet.... Read More
After years of discussion about the idea, the federal government has launched consultations on creating a national food policy. “Developing this food policy is an exciting opportunity for Canadians to have their say about how government can help address those opportunities and challenges that exist in our food system," said Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, announcing... Read More
Many dairy and poultry farmers across Canada breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday night as Andrew Scheer defeated front-runner Maxime Bernier to become the leader of the Official Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada. One of Bernier's main promises during the campaign was to dismantle supply management (SM) — the quota system that... Read More
Last week, the Alberta government introduced Bill 17, the Fair and Family-Friendly Workplaces Act, which updates Alberta’s Labour Code and Employment Standards Code. Since the bill covers all workers in Alberta, it requires some further digging to parse out what applies to agriculture and farms. On Friday, Shaun Haney spoke with Oneil Carlier, Minister of... Read More
The Alberta government has introduced legislation to overhaul workplace rules across the province, including expanding labour relations rights and employment standards rules to non-family farm workers. Bill 17, named the Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act, received its first reading on Wednesday. If passed, most of it would take effect on January 1, 2018. While many... Read More
"It's not perfect, but it is better than we expected." The new rail legislation introduced by the federal government checks off most of the boxes on the list for grain shippers, says Wade Sobkowich, who represents major grain companies as executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association. Bill C-49 would give shippers the right... Read More
The federal government is extending the comment period for its proposal to potentially eliminate the deferred cash ticket option for grain sales. The department of finance, on Tuesday, announced the consultation period that was originally scheduled to end May 24th will remain open beyond seeding season, until July 24. When delivering a listed grain (such... Read More