Karen Briere

Saskatchewan’s natural gas rates are coming down substantially, just as outside temperatures start to go up. The provincial cabinet has approved a recommendation from the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel to set SaskEnergy’s commodity rate at $5.96 per gigajoule as of April 1. That figure is 21 percent lower than the price consumers have been paying […] Read more

Two years after flooding ruined roads, bridges and other infrastructure in Saskatchewan, the federal government has announced it will pay the province its share of response and recovery costs. High water levels caused by excessive snow melt and spring runoff in northeastern and east-central Saskatchewan caused problems from March to November 2007. The province provided […] Read more

Consumers may appreciate how Maple Leaf Foods took responsibility for a listeriosis outbreak last summer, but not all of them are buying the company’s meat products. According to a survey conducted by two University of Regina researchers in February, 69 percent of respondents thought the company handled product recall well. However, one-quarter of those who […] Read more

Grant programs that the Agricultural Council of Saskatchewan delivers for the federal government have created far reaching economic benefits, says a recent study. The Insightrix Research study found that the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food Saskatchewan (ACAAFS) and Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development (CARDS) increased the value of goods and services by $66 million. ACS […] Read more

The decades-long fight to ease the burden of education tax on Saskatchewan agricultural land is over. The government last week introduced province-wide mill rates for residential, agricultural and commercial property and assumed greater responsibility for paying the Kindergarten to Grade 12 bill. The provincial share last year was 51 percent. It will pay 63 percent […] Read more

Saskatchewan is relying on potash to keep its finances in the pink. The province’s reliance on resource revenue has shifted from the “black gold” of oil to potash for 2009-10. Finance minister Rod Gantefoer said the mineral mined in the grain belt should generate $1.9 billion for the province this year, or about 20 percent […] Read more

Farmers concerned about the winter wheat languishing in their bins can take heart. The Canadian Wheat Board says loading has begun and shipping will continue through the next three months. “We’re actually starting to load about 250 cars of red winter for new sales, so March will be, I would say, steady on red winter,” […] Read more

Tim Ball has lived through two climate changes and is into his third. The former University of Winnipeg professor, who frequently speaks out against human causes of climate change, acknowledges the climate is changing. He told delegates to the Farm Leadership Council in Regina recently that he has never said it isn’t, even though many […] Read more

Producers who need help on the farm can head down to the nearest employment agency and find someone, right? Or perhaps they can call their neighbour, who will be happy to send his son over to help out. These options might have worked once, but neither scenario is likely these days. The labour pool is […] Read more