The 49th parallel can be a barrier for business and the Great Falls Development Authority wants to help Canadian companies breach it. Members of the authority have travelled to Alberta three times this year on fact-finding missions with the goal of attracting Canadian business expansion to Montana and using Alberta ideas to foster their own […] Read more
Barb Glen
Stories by Barb Glen
Netherlands’ waste management has lessons
It took almost 40 years for the Netherlands to reduce its per capita waste from an estimated 500 kilograms per person down to, in some regions, a comparatively small 21 kg. It also took money and major buy-in from citizens, government, companies and farmers. The country is not yet done with its plans regarding waste, […] Read more
SaskPower has more poles than province has people
Power poles proliferate on the Prairies, doing a job that is generally taken for granted. Holding up those vital electrical lines that service farms, businesses, cities and towns, they require their own maintenance so they can keep doing their upright jobs. SaskPower, the electrical provider in Saskatchewan, said it plans to inspect 112,000 wooden power […] Read more
Rural Canada contributes 30 percent of GDP
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities releases a study that recommends more funding for rural communities
Rural Canada contributes about 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. More than 10 million Canadians live outside metropolitan areas. Nearly 23 percent of Canadians work in rural communities. These figures are part of a report released last week by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Rural Challenges, National Opportunity: Shaping the future of rural […] Read more
Oh, rats.
The poet Robert Browning described them thus in the Pied Piper of Hamelin:
Every day at the store, it was the same thing — chew marks on a loaf of gluten-free bread, every day, for four months. “The pest control officer thought for sure someone was pulling his leg. He could find no evidence of a rat, but every morning this gluten- free bread was gnawed on a […] Read moreAlberta MLAs, legal recommendations fail to make changes to squatter’s rights law
Legislation that allows for adverse possession, also known as squatter’s rights, remains in Alberta law despite three political attempts and several legal recommendations to remove it. The government on May 14 voted down the latest effort, presented as Bill 204 by Calgary-Fish Creek MLA Richard Gotfried. “Three strikes and you’re out, I guess,” said the […] Read more
Silage offers livestock producers flexible feeding options
Silage is an efficient method of storing winter feed supplies and those who faced a feed shortage this spring might be considering it as an option even if they’ve never done it before. Dwayne Summach, livestock and feed extension specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, explained the basics of silage at a webinar held earlier this year. […] Read more
Mussel inspectors make first catch of the year
Last year about 30,000 boats and watercraft were inspected at Alberta’s borders
Alta. resumes efforts to keep invasive mussels out of province’s waterways, where they can damage irrigation equipment
A boat heading for Alberta’s Ghost Reservoir May 6, en route from Lake Winnipeg, carried nasty cargo. Invasive mussels were stuck to its hull, the very type of destructive pest that Alberta is keen to avoid and has taken steps to intercept. Boat inspectors at the Dunmore station east of Medicine Hat spotted the mussels […] Read more
Supply management means trade-offs: prof
Elimination of supply management would also come with benefits
A University of Lethbridge economist says low-income Canadians are adversely affected, but so are other groups
The 13,500 Canadian farmers who operate with the supply management system have a combined quota value of more than $35 billion. It’s no wonder that those farmers want to retain the system, says University of Lethbridge economist Danny LeRoy. However, both retention and loss of supply management involve trade-offs to the economy and individuals, he […] Read moreSheep producers wanted for ongoing parasite study
Wanted: sheep manure, still warm. Also wanted: sheep producers interested in parasite research. Researchers John Gilleard and Michel Levy of the University of Calgary veterinary medicine faculty haven’t exactly placed a want ad, but they are trolling for more participants in an ongoing study of sheep parasites and their resistance to treatment. Now in the […] Read more
