“The silos of agriculture are crumbling, like it or not," says Eric Fridfinnson, chair of the Manitoba Flax Growers Association — one of five commodity groups in Manitoba that are working toward amalgamating. "It’s a change we’ve all observed over the years,” he continues. “This approach – the approach we’ve been working on – has... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has made a change to its labeling rules for packers that moves the Canadian pork industry a step closer to benefitting from the Canada-European Union trade agreement. A change to the CFIA Manual of Procedures will now allow packers to apply EU health mark labels after meat has been... Read More
Despite major concerns from the farm community, Manitoba's agriculture minister says the provincial government was left with no choice but to move forward with implementing a carbon tax. "If we say no, then we'll get Trudeau," says Ralph Eichler in the interview below, referring to the Prime Minister's national carbon price mandate. Eichler joined us... Read More
The dust is starting to settle after Finance Minister Bill Morneau's flurry of announcements backtracking on the federal government's proposed small business tax changes. Now that the news conferences are over and we've had a few days to analyze the changes to the changes, how will the updates affect farm businesses? First of all, we... Read More
Manitoba farmers won't be paying a carbon tax on farm fuel, but questions remain about other costs that farms will bear from carbon pricing and where new tax revenues will be spent. Premier Brian Pallister and Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires unveiled the province's "Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan" on Friday. The federal government wants... Read More
A guest editorial submitted by Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada: I likely can’t count the number of times I have spoken or written the words "science-based". It is a mantra of sorts. And for good reason. Technology is the most important competitive advantage for Canadian agriculture. This is how we are going to compete... Read More
Since the U.S. opened the NAFTA talks, and even before that, U.S. Dairy Export Council President Tom Vilsack has been pushing hard for more dairy access in the Canadian market. He has stressed the need for increased competition in North America, saying the consumer will ultimately win. I've heard him speak several times and the... Read More
Glyphosate continues to face an uncertain future in the European Union, potentially impacting North American grain exports to the EU. The European Parliament voted in favour of banning glyphosate by 2022 on Tuesday, a day before a European Commission committee was set to vote on a proposal to re-authorize the world's most commonly used herbicide... Read More
Twitter lit up last week, after a screenshot of a Facebook post was shared showing the vice chair of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission Board (SaskWheat) of Directors endorsing four of the ten candidates running for seats in the current director election. On October 2, Dan Danielson, in a public Facebook post, listed the four... Read More
The potential loss of 23,000 jobs — mainly in rural Ontario — and demise of 20,000 racehorses was not enough to stop the Ontario Liberal government from ending the Slots at Racetracks program. This revelation emerged last week from court documents released as part of a civil suit brought by Ontario standardbred racehorse breeders against... Read More