Barry Wilson

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

REGINA – When farmer-critics of the Canadian Wheat Board find themselves in front of a microphone, they often don’t mince their words. Last week, as the Senate agriculture committee held public prairie hearings on CWB reform legislation, senators heard the board monopoly denounced in blunt language not often heard in parliamentary settings. At one point, […] Read more

BRANDON, Man. – Grant Maddess figures if he could catch a ride on the value-adding wave, he could add up to $30,000 to the revenues of his Deloraine, Man., grain farm. But last week, he told a Senate hearing on Canadian Wheat Board reform that board policies are denying him that chance. “It just isn’t […] Read more

Over the strong objections of Reform and Conservative MPs, the House of Commons has approved in principle Canada Labor Code changes that would prevent west coast export grain from being tied up by third party work stoppages. Reform and Conservative MPs opposed it, in part because they object to grain being given special status in […] Read more

It is the type of error lowly bureaucrats cringe over. Several weeks ago the federal department of heritage announced that Charles, The Prince of Wales, would be visiting Vancouver with sons William and Harry. “The Prince of Whales will carry out some public engagements on March 24,” said the statement. A few hours later, red-faced […] Read more

Officials from the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency have started the process of putting a long-festering dispute behind them. The agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Northwest Territories, beginning a process that will bring its two large egg producers into the national system. “We have finished the negotiations, the documents have been drawn […] Read more

When Agriculture Canada economists drew up comparative models of “representative” hog operations in Ontario and Alberta, the first thing to factor in was higher market prices in Ontario. Both farms were set up as 150-sow farrow-to-finish operations and yet revenue from hog sales at the Ontario farm were projected at $265,361 in 1998, compared to […] Read more