Mary MacArthur

Higher health-care premiums and an increase in tobacco taxes will be the first changes implemented in Alberta’s sweeping health reform. The Alberta government has accepted all 44 recommendations made in a report by the Premier’s Advisory Council on Health, but many of those recommendations will take months or years to implement, said health minister Gary […] Read more

Last week’s deep government spending cuts, aimed at turning British Columbia’s ailing economy around, hit the province’s agriculture and fisheries ministry hard. The department’s budget will be cut 45 percent over three years, down to $44.5 million from $81 million. Only the forestry and transportation department had deeper cuts. Overall, the province’s budget will be […] Read more

A canola crushing plant in northern Alberta that has been sitting idle for five years will get a new life as a wood resin factory. Finland-based Dynea Oy bought the former Northern Lite Canola Inc. site from the Town of Sexsmith and hopes to produce resin by next year. The resin from the Sexsmith plant […] Read more

Thousands of Alberta teachers have given notice they will strike Feb. 4. The Alberta Teachers Association delayed the strike until February to allow students to write their provincial achievement exams. Six school districts have conducted a supervised strike vote and can walk out with 72 hours notice. Sixteen districts could conduct a strike vote by […] Read more

Alberta cattle are expected to eat as much as one million bushels of American corn this year because local barley became too expensive. “Barley simply priced itself out of the feed market,” said Errol Anderson with Pro-Market Communications. He estimated corn will replace about one tenth of the grain fed to Alberta cattle in this […] Read more

Southern Alberta elevators have become like New Brunswick’s famous reversing falls. Instead of prairie grain coming into elevators by truck and leaving by rail, American corn is coming into the elevators by train and leaving by truck. “It’s the opposite of what we normally do,” said Ross Affleck, facility operations manager at AgPro’s Wilson Siding […] Read more

Alberta’s reputation as a world-class meat producer remains intact even though some southern Alberta feedlots are feeding their cattle corn instead of barley, says the president of Canada’s beef export agency. “Through a visual inspection it’s virtually impossible to tell the different between beef that has been fed corn or barley,” said Ted Haney of […] Read more

A Calgary man has been convicted of selling a product to control algae growth in dugouts that was registered to another company. Anwar Karmali of Nature Aid Products was sentenced in provincial court to pay $1,150 in fines, to forfeit 11, four-litre jugs of the algaecide to the federal health department, pay disposal costs and […] Read more

EDMONTON – Albertans should brace themselves for higher health-care premiums, fewer services covered by health care, and a debit-style user card to track health costs. Those were some of the 44 recommendations in a report on the future of the province’s health care. It’s not clear which of the recommendations made by the Premier’s Advisory […] Read more

Tall, leafy barley varieties that are seeded shallow and grow densely can eliminate or reduce the need for herbicide, said an Alberta Agriculture crop specialist. “It’s a good practice that is going to reduce the reliance on spraying,” said Ron Hockridge of Wetaskiwin. Recent trials at the research centre in Lacombe, Alta., showed forage barley […] Read more