Karen Briere

Fewer people used Saskatchewan’s bus company last year, despite its efforts to attract more riders. Nearly 259,000 customers rode the bus, according to the Saskatchewan Transportation Company’s annual report, down four percent from the previous year. Officials said the decline was at least partly the result of lingering unease following the beheading of a passenger […] Read more

One step remains in the process that will allow the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association to collect and administer beef check-off dollars in the province. The Saskatchewan legislature’s standing committee on the economy last week repealed the existing legislation and authorized the SCA to collect the national levy and forward it to the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. The […] Read more

SaskPower spent a record $640 million on capital projects last year and plans to spend $8 billion over the next decade to improve its aging infrastructure. Capital investment in 2010 will be $832 million. The Farmyard Power Line Relocation Program and Rural Electrical Distribution Program were among the projects introduced last year that will continue. […] Read more

Saskatchewan agricultural manufacturer Seed Hawk has laid off 35 workers and reassigned others as it faces fewer orders from Eastern Europe. The layoffs take effect May 6 and come with recall notices for Aug. 3. They were issued just a few months after the company from Langbank, Sask., announced a $7.5 million expansion to increase […] Read more

Saskatchewan’s shrinking pork sector could become smaller still, says SaskPork chair Jay McGrath. McGrath told the recent Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan conference that too many factors have conspired to depress the industry. “We lost a lot of producers in Saskatchewan and I don’t think we’re totally done with that yet,” he said. There are […] Read more

A Saskatchewan landfill approved to accept rendered specified risk material has finally begun accepting the product. The Highway 55 Waste Management Corp. in the Rural Municipality of Canwood built a pit for SRM last year. It accepted its first load in February. The materials were previously used to make animal feed and fertilizer but that […] Read more

Given events of the past few years, some people might have thought it impossible. The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, an organization that appeared on the verge of collapse two years ago, marked its 10th anniversary at its annual meeting held March 23-24. APAS membership dropped from a high of 134 rural municipalities in 2005-06 […] Read more

Gene Kessler, chief executive officer for a company that recently launched a line of prairie-raised organic processed meat products, said the project was years in the making. Clear Creek Organics officially launched its first eight products, certified by Ecocert Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba last month. The company also opened its own retail location. It […] Read more

Legislation that will change the way the beef checkoff is collected in Saskatchewan is expected to go to committee next week, one of the last steps before it becomes law. The Agri-Food Amendment Act, 2009, will move authority for the collection and distribution of the $1 refundable provincial beef levy to the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association […] Read more