Roberta Rampton

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government tabled a cautious, conservative budget last week, reducing total spending by 3.2 percent, or $176 million, for 1996-97. But finance minister Eric Stefanson was quick to point fingers at the federal government for the tighter budget belt and warned future budgets will not be any bigger. “Over the next five […] Read more

WINNIPEG – The Canadian Wheat Board needs to make changes to reward entrepreneurial wheat and barley growers, according to a farmer who helped revive interest in Glenlea wheat. David Faurschou, who farms near Portage la Prairie, Man., told the Western Grain Marketing Panel hearings that he helps pay for a breeding program for the extra […] Read more

WINNIPEG (Staff) – The Canadian Wheat Board would work better if it was a co-operative, according to two individuals who appeared before the Western Grain Marketing Panel here. Al Loyns, an agricultural economist from the University of Manitoba and a long-time permit book holder with the CWB, told the panel a co-op would probably attract […] Read more

BEAUSEJOUR, Man. – Midwifery will become legal in Manitoba next year, but some women are worried new regional health boards won’t make the service available. “From some of the consultations that we’ve done in the rural areas, what we’ve heard back from people is they’re concerned with regionalization, as to whether midwifery will be a […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Bernie von Tettenborn wants to protect the bottom line on his 2,900-acre farm near Camrose, Alta. from the curve balls Mother Nature throws his way. Yet last year, for the first time, he decided not to buy crop insurance. He was still smarting from 1994, when he had his worst crop in 25 […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Agriculture minister Harry Enns says hog farmers should use the next few months to form business plans, arrange contracts and prepare themselves for an open market. Enns announced Manitoba Pork, a single-desk seller of hogs in the province, will lose its monopoly July 1. Ken Foster, chair of Manitoba Pork, said he didn’t […] Read more

WINNIPEG (Staff) – Daryl Kraft says although his name is on a recent report outlining the benefits of the Canadian Wheat Board, that doesn’t necessarily mean he supports single-desk selling for every commodity. Kraft wrote another report released this week to the Manitoba government on how to change the hog marketing system from a single-desk […] Read more

WINNIPEG – The latest events at the Canada-U.S. border did not go unnoticed by people at the Western Grain Marketing Panel hearings last week. Ted Allen, president of United Grain Growers, said the arrests were significant. “I think the rest of us should pay attention because what it tells us is it’s no longer a […] Read more

WINNIPEG – Philosophies clashed. Economists dueled. Speakers called upon price arguments as old as the gilded ballroom at the historic Fort Garry Hotel. The first four days of the Western Grain Marketing Panel hearings could have turned into a wrestling match. But chief panelist Tom Molloy said he heard more light than heat during the […] Read more

WINNIPEG (Staff) – The Canadian Wheat Board wants the ability to build up a venture capital fund so it can buy into customers’ processing projects. Commissioner Gordon Machej told the Western Grain Marketing Panel that customers ask the board to contribute to capital projects to secure markets for grain. The board would need a change […] Read more