Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government has made some big changes in the boardroom of the province's agriculture insurance and lending agency. With the exception of one director, the NDP-appointed board for the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) has been replaced. Jim Wilson, a grain farmer and accountant from Darlingford, has been named the new chair of... Read More
Category: Ag Policy
China has loosened its restrictions on imports of Canadian beef, coinciding with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Ottawa this week. The premier announced Wednesday that China will begin accepting bone-in beef from Canadian cattle under 30 months of age — effective immediately — for the first time since BSE was found in Canada in... Read More
The Prime Minister says a deal has been reached with China to maintain Canadian canola exports into early 2020. "This is great news for our Canadian canola farmers. Our progress on this file goes to show how two countries willing to collaborate can solve difficult challenges together," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking Thursday morning... Read More
Farmers and rural residents are fed up with sky-rocketing hydro electricity costs, and they're done being polite about it. This week at the International Plowing Match, the agriculture and rural community let Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government know — very vocally — just what they thought of a proposed HST cut to ease hydro... Read More
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has announced a hunting and trapping ban on wolves and coyotes across 40 townships, effective immediately. Said to be a step towards protecting Ontario wolves, specifically the recently re-named Algonquin wolf, hunters and trappers will be banned from hunting or trapping wolves and coyotes in three additional... Read More
Ontario MPP for Huron-Bruce, Lisa Thompson, has launched an initiative aimed at addressing concerns that the next phase of Ontario's neonicotinoid regulations will unfairly limit farmers' choices and the professional reach of agriculture professionals. Last week, Thompson introduced to the provincial legislature Bill 4, the Supporting Agricultural Experts in Their Field Act, 2016, in counter... Read More
Pundits have said the leaders of the next agricultural revolution – the digital revolution — will be big data-powered researchers, with a universe of information in hand to help make farming more efficient than ever. But no one said those researchers would be found in the labs, fields, and classrooms of some of Canada’s main... Read More
Barley grower organizations from the three prairie provinces and the Western Grains Research Foundation are investing $2.4 million over the next five years in the barley variety development program at the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre. The funding from Alberta Barley, the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission, the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association and... Read More
Although we live in a different country, Canadians are closely following the real-life theatre that is the U.S. presidential election. "You guys have as much at stake as we do," said Stu Ellis, only half-joking, when asked if he'd be willing to do an interview on the election for a Canadian farm audience at the... Read More
Does agriculture have its own social licence, its own special bond with the public? I wondered that last week, thinking about the energy sector. My thoughts were prompted by the terrified look on Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre’s face, when he unwittingly found himself between a protestor (described by the media as “burly”) and participants at... Read More