When the next election campaign begins, each political party will be allowed to purchase a limited number of broadcast minutes for advertising. Under the Canada Elections Act, total air time available for purchase is 390 minutes from each broadcaster. This year, the parties could not agree so two weeks ago, an arbitrator appointed by the […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
OTTAWA NOTEBOOK
Canadian farmers received a record $28.3 billion last year in farm cash receipts, Statistics Canada has reported. The big gains came in wheat, barley, corn and hogs with receipts from hog sales showing the greatest jump – up 31 percent to $2.95 billion. Wheat receipts were up 24 percent on the year to $3.48 billion, […] Read more
Goodale now praises Tory farm programs
The federal farm income support programs designed by the former Conservative government half a decade ago have proven successful on several fronts, the Liberal government reported to Parliament last week. When the Tories pushed the Farm Income Protection Act through Parliament in 1991, the then-opposition Liberals fought it as inadequate. Last week, in a report […] Read more
Equity fund invests; not a lender
It might sound like a clichŽ but the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Equity Fund invests in people and ideas. “The first four rules of equity investing are: management, management, management and management,” said Lyle Bolen, fund manager. “Equity investors don’t take security, so management is the key component in our assessment of viability of a business.” The […] Read more
U.S. farmers fume over tough tobacco laws
RALEIGH, North Carolina – In the window of Pipes by George, a smoke shop in the centre of this big tobacco city, a photograph of hockey superhero Wayne Gretzky appeared last week to promote the product. On the cover of the magazine Cigar Aficionado, Gretzky and wife Janet Jones stood smiling, cigars in hand. “I […] Read more
Glickman sees rosy agricultural picture
WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States agriculture secretary Dan Glickman is not a politician given to public displays of joy, but he came close last week as he described the future for American agriculture. “The outlook for American agriculture is very very good, very bullish,” he told the opening session of an agriculture outlook conference. “President […] Read more
U.S. food exports down, Canada’s up
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States, like Canada, is trumpeting its growing success at exporting food to the world. But this year it expects its wheat exports to tumble by 39 percent. Unlike Canada, the U.S. export industry is not recording a new record every year. Last week, agriculture secretary Dan Glickman predicted 1997 exports […] Read more
U.S. tries to figure out China’s role in food trade
A few years ago, an entrepreneurial Ottawa funeral director was part of a business group travelling in China. He returned to Canada enthusiastic about the business opportunity. There are more than a billion people there, he told a Canadian interviewer. Many of them are old and they all have to die. Just a fraction of […] Read more
University dean warns Canada of private research funding
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Canadian government’s policy of offsetting cuts in public research funding by luring private cash with matching grants has a dangerous underside to it, says the dean of a prestigious American agriculture college. Based on American experience, it risks shifting the balance between public and private good, said Michael Martin, dean of […] Read more
Wheat price boom headed for bust: economists
WASHINGTON, D.C. – American government economists are predicting wheat prices this year will plunge by 20 percent, the victim of high stocks and stable import markets. “That is a big drop and it will take its toll,” said Peter Riley, grains analyst with the United States Department of Agriculture. “We think prices will rebound again […] Read more
