As the NAFTA negotiations enter the third round of talks in Ottawa, the agriculture community in all three countries is nervous. We have heard "do no harm" so many times from famers and ranchers in all three countries that you'd think it should have penetrated into the minds of the negotiating teams. The White House... Read More
Category: Eastern Canada
The federal government wants to clamp down on incorporated business owners who it says are claiming capital gains when they should be reporting taxable income or dividends. A capital gain is essentially the increase in the value of a capital asset, such as farmland, above its purchase price. Under Canada's tax system, only 50 percent... Read More
Farmers who visited the 2017 Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS) in Woodstock, Ontario had an opportunity to watch the Climate FieldView in action in a field scale demo. So how's it different from other precision agriculture application out there? Owned by The Climate Corporation (a subsidiary of Monsanto), the key to the platform is a... Read More
The length of time it takes to a new technology to clear regulatory approvals is often seen as a barrier to innovation. In the case of a new wheat variety, for example, there are multiple pieces of federal legislation (ie. the Canada Seeds Act and the Canada Grains Act) and government departments involved in bringing... Read More
The federal government thinks too many Canadians are using private corporations as tax-advantaged personal savings accounts, and so it's proposing having much higher tax rates apply to income that comes from investments made within a company. For an incorporated farm business, this "passive" investment income might include returns from GICs, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, or... Read More
Canadian corn and soybean growers have a new tool to tackle resistant and tough-to-control weeds. Zidua SC, a new Group 15 herbicide from BASF, will be available in 2018. Deven Esqueda, BASF corn and soybeans crop manager, says the herbicide is labelled for use in herbicide-tolerant soybeans and field corn. With the active ingredient pyroxasulfone,... Read More
There's a reason most farms pay accountants to provide tax planning advice. Taxes are complicated. Add multiple pages of new information, unclear definitions, 'tax cheat' accusations, some emotional rhetoric, and it's a challenge, even for accountants, to assess what Finance Minister Bill Morneau's proposed tax changes could mean for an individual farm business. We're going... Read More
Canada's wheat industry, working together with the federal government, laid out its priorities for research in a national report unveiled at press conference in Saskatoon on Tuesday. Led by Cereals Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the 2017 Canadian Wheat Research Priorities Report is being described as the first time the wheat industry has come... Read More
Finance Minister Bill Morneau asked several Opposition MPs to send him contact information for Canadians concerned about the Liberals' proposed tax reforms during Question Period on Monday, saying he would call these individuals personally. After hearing Morneau say this, some farmers and small business owners picked up the phone to call the minister, only to... Read More
After years of patiently waiting for market approvals, Dow AgroSciences' Enlist corn hybrids are heading to farm fields in 2018. The company showed off eight of the 16 hybrids it will make available for 2018 planting at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ontario. Dow Seeds portfolio marketing leader Marty Vermey explains that the program... Read More