REGINA – The federal government last weekend announced $22 million in new agriculture funding, much of it aimed at environmental projects. The largest chunk is a $10 million, two-year commitment to the national soil and water conservation program. The prairie portion will be distributed through the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. The funding is part of […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Television commentators decide winners of debate
In a small Ethelbert, Man., diner one day last week, a newspaper lay open to a story about Conservative leader Jean Charest’s “victory” in the English-language leaders debate. One of the lunchtime diners mentioned that Charest was doing well. “Did you watch the debate?” asked a companion. “Hell, no. I had better things to do.” […] Read more
Deal made on chicken production
Canada’s chicken industry has a one-year deal aimed at better controlling production growth and improving farmer prices. “We have come together to approve a system that will work for the year,” Chicken Farmers of Canada president John Kolk, of Alberta said in a May 14 interview. Directors of CFC met in Hull, Que. last week […] Read more
Leaders’ debate fails to examine farm or rural concerns
The leaders of Canada’s five major political parties debated the election issues for two and a half hours last week without breathing a word about agriculture policy. The closest they came was when Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest twice mentioned that part of his environmental policy is to merge Agriculture Canada into a super department […] Read more
Nail biter shaping up in Manitoba
DAUPHIN, Man. – An imminent rail-line abandonment in the sprawling western Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River provides a snapshot of politics in a close election race. Liberal candidate and incumbent MP Marlene Cowling, selling a good-news agenda, sees it as an opportunity. “I can understand that people affected are uneasy about change,” she said in […] Read more
Charest will keep unity: MacKenzie
HUNTSVILLE, Ont. – Star Progressive Conservative candidate Lewis MacKenzie figured it was the best compliment he had received during weeks of campaigning. On a street in Huntsville, in rural riding north of Toronto where he is trying his hand at elected politics for the first time, MacKenzie met a woman who vowed not to vote […] Read more
Politicians try to figure out changing voter tastes
John Shepherd, a retired auto worker who moved to cottage country north of Toronto two years ago, was perplexed. He had just spent five minutes talking to one of the star candidates in the election – Conservative candidate Lewis MacKenzie – and he liked what he had heard. Yet he cannot decide how to vote, […] Read more
Food export future rosy, agency predicts
The Canadian government’s export financing agency has an optimistic prediction about Canada’s food export potential. Last week, the Export Development Corporation predicted that during the next six years, the value of agriculture and food exports will rise on average 11 percent per year. By 2003, said an EDC official, the value of exports could be […] Read more
Unity in supply managed sector essential for trade talks, expert
Canada’s supply managed farm sectors should be preparing for the loss of a significant part of the tariff protection they now enjoy, says Canada’s former chief international trade negotiator. Gerry Shannon, who led Canada’s negotiations at the last round of world trade talks which established high protective tariffs for dairy and poultry industries, said last […] Read more
Net incomes to dip in ’97
A senior Canadian banker last week predicted a 20 percent drop in realized net farm income this year, driven down by rising production costs. Craig Rothwell, in charge of agricultural lending for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said farm income after depreciation will fall to $1.8 billion in 1997, after a slight decline to […] Read more
