Karen Briere

The Saskatchewan government and three Outlook area farmers have settled out of court on a lawsuit involving Spudco. Peter Prebble, the minister responsible for Sask Water, said the lawsuit had been settled for approximately $100,000. “The precise details of the settlement remain confidential, in part at the request of the Dolman family,” he said. However, […] Read more

A labour shortage has put construction of a slaughter plant to support Natural Valley Farms’ processing facility well behind schedule. The company had hoped the Neudorf, Sask., plant would be open this fall, but livestock manager Ken Piller said it will now be completed this winter. The target date for full production capacity is February […] Read more

A Regina judge last week extended Worldwide Pork’s court protection from creditors for a fourth time, but said he wants to see some progress by Oct. 27. Queen’s Bench justice Dennis Ball heard a general outline of the Moose Jaw packer’s plan to reopen the plant, closed since mid-May after producers stopped shipping hogs because […] Read more

A shipment of Canadian feeder bison arrived in the United States through the North Portal, Sask., border crossing Sept. 16, the first since BSE closed the border in May 2003. Two weeks earlier, a load of 88 bison was turned back from an Alberta-Montana crossing because the proper handling facilities weren’t in place. Under new […] Read more

An opposition MP from Ontario says Canada should establish a sustainable food strategy that will allow Canadian farmers to produce quality food for the next 20 years. Barry Devolin, the Conservative representative from Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock, said he would introduce a private member’s motion in the House of Commons at his first opportunity. The motion was […] Read more

The lawyer representing Worldwide Pork says the Moose Jaw, Sask., packer is still working on a refinancing package that would reopen the plant and expand its markets. Worldwide’s protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act expires Sept. 27 and lawyers will be back in court in Regina that afternoon. Rick Van Beselaere said Ontario-based Mallot […] Read more

With Lake Diefenbaker’s vast reserves close at hand, Roger Pederson doesn’t worry much about water availability. The president of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association says it will be a long time before farmers who irrigate out of the reservoir ever run out of water. The lake created in 1967 by damming the South Saskatchewan River […] Read more

Ken Singleton says he can’t pass more costs on to farmers. That’s why he wants a fuel exemption for his bale-picking trucks. Singleton, who operates a specialized bale picking vehicle as part of his Prairie Oilfield Services Ltd. business at Kennedy, Sask., said the rising cost of fuel is costing him too much. He doesn’t […] Read more

The difference between the two images is remarkable. One shows the Athabasca glacier in the Rocky Mountains’ Columbia ice field in 1917. The other shows the same view in the early 1990s. In the newer photograph, the glacier’s toe has receded by 1.5 kilometres. According to one expert, the glacier is losing 60 million cubic […] Read more

The rural-urban divide in Saskatchewan is perhaps more myth than reality, agricultural economist Rose Olfert told a Sept. 10 conference in Regina. Olfert, who teaches at the University of Saskatchewan, said integration and interdependence more accurately describe the way rural and urban populations co-exist and that differences don’t have to mean a divide. For example, […] Read more