Barry Wilson

Alberta produces and sells the cheapest milk in the country and supply to processing plants is not a problem. Yet the Parmalat ice cream plant in Calgary uses imported butteroil rather than local cream in its lower-grade ice creams because it is cheaper. Using the controversial import, brought into Canada in a 49-51 butteroil-sugar blend […] Read more

Ontario wheat board directors last week endorsed an earlier delegate decision to allow farmers the right to opt out of the pool next year. In late autumn, farmers will be asked if they want to be totally in the revenue-sharing pool for domestic and export sales in 1999, or totally out of the pool and […] Read more

The federal government has set an ambitious target of increasing the value of food exports by close to 80 percent during the next eight years. In an outlook presented to Parliament, Agriculture Canada made much of its plans to aggressively promote expanded trade. It promised to negotiate more market access into foreign markets, to promote […] Read more

It may not be as valuable as an Eric Lindros rookie card or as much in demand as a Gordie Howe card from the year he retired, but Ralph Goodale’s 1998 MP trading card is now available. Like cards for the other 300 MPs who sit in the House of Commons, Goodale’s offers some vital […] Read more

The Canadian government last week said it will sell $250 million worth of wheat on credit to economically reeling Indonesia. It will preserve Canada’s share of the market in the third-largest national buyer of Canadian wheat. It also will promote Canadian humanitarian goals to feed Indonesians during an economic crisis compounded by drought, the government […] Read more

The federal and Ontario governments have again agreed to step outside rules for disaster financial assistance programs to provide extra help to eastern Ontario farmers hurt by the January ice storm. Two weeks ago, the two governments announced an additional $20 million will be spent to cover extraordinary expenses. These range from stress counselling and […] Read more

EDMONTON – Officially, the Alberta Wheat Pool did not offer the Senate agriculture committee advice last week on how a future Canadian Wheat Board should look. With a divided membership, the AWP declined a committee offer to appear. Unofficially, both sides of the pool’s split personality on the CWB were displayed before the senators as […] Read more

EDMONTON – Canadian cattle producers like the Canadian Wheat Board just the way it is, the Senate agriculture committee was told last week. John Prentice, a director of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, said April 1 cattle producers fear that a grain farmer-controlled wheat board will hurt the cattle industry by trying to keep feed grain […] Read more

While big business and west coast employers last week raged against Canada Labor Code amendments affecting export grain movement, support for the proposals came in a rare show of unity from grain companies and their employees’ unions. And the prairie alfalfa dehydrators’ industry protested that it inadvertently falls outside grain protection offered by the proposed […] Read more