OTTAWA – Emergency farm cash advances required because of exceptional weather conditions should be interest free, several farm lobby groups told MPs last week. During Parliament Hill hearings on proposed new national marketing loan and cash advance legislation, Prairie Pools Inc. and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture praised new rules that will put the $50,000 […] Read more
Stories by Barry Wilson
Provincial boards say new debt review system less humane
OTTAWA – Two provincial farm debt review board chairs say the government is making mistakes as it tries to shape the program into a mediation service. One major complaint voiced last week by the chairs of the Ontario and Quebec farm debt review boards is that the proposed new system will only provide help when […] Read more
Liberal gamble puts politics of barley into focus
Ralph Goodale’s announcement of his barley-vote gamble sets in motion a tense political drama which shifts some of the tight-collar tensions from the Reform caucus to the Liberals. Goodale clearly prefers to keep the Canadian Wheat Board as the single-desk exporter of barley. Most of his caucus mates agree. Yet if he loses the vote, […] Read more
Hog exporters to get countervail duty rebate
OTTAWA – Canada’s hog exporters are in line for a rebate of more than $25 million in the wake of an American government ruling last week that its countervail duties were too high during the three years ending in March, 1994. Some of the money will go to hog marketing boards in the three prairie […] Read more
Chemical industry balks at user fees
OTTAWA – The fault line between the farm chemical industry, its customers and the new federal regulatory agency is still sharply defined despite a two-day meeting to try to bridge the divide. At issue is the $28 million annual budget for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and its determination to recover more than $16 million […] Read more
Cash advance rules changed to cut costs
OTTAWA – A Commons committee last week began hearings on legislation which will revamp the cash advance program for Canadian farmers. Four existing marketing loan programs are being rolled into one national program, with similar rules across the country. Among the changes will be creation of legislative authority for the interest-free portion of the program […] Read more
Senate enemy takes chair amidst ribbing
OTTAWA – To hear his new colleagues tell it, swearing in Eugene Whelan two weeks ago as a senator was like letting the fox enter the chicken coop and then locking the gate behind him. The former Liberal agriculture minister and longtime opponent of the Senate was sworn in as the newest senator at the […] Read more
Ottawa will intervene if funding threatens vote’s fairness
OTTAWA – Agriculture minister Ralph Goodale says the federal government will intervene in the debate over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board if Alberta funds the anti-board forces. The federal government has called a winter plebiscite on whether prairie barley producers want to market their product through the board or through the grain trade. […] Read more
Customs agents ordered to enforce monopoly
OTTAWA – Prairie farmers who want the government to end the Canadian Wheat Board export monopoly should use democracy rather than illegal acts to make their point, says the minister responsible for border controls. Revenue minister Jane Stewart said Monday she has heard the threats from some prairie farmers that despite the government announcement of […] Read more
Infrastructure program surpasses hiring goals: report
OTTAWA – Investment of close to $1.6 billion in public infrastructure program funds during the past three years has created 1,400 long-term jobs in Western Canada and close to 28,000 temporary jobs. This is the tally provided in an analysis of the $6 billion infrastructure program dreamed up by the Liberals for their last election […] Read more
