Former Liberal MP Ralph Goodale urges prairie governments to agree to the federal government’s proposed changes to AgriStability but also recommends exempting on-farm use of propane and natural gas from the carbon tax, accelerating government and private sector investments in the prairie-based Protein Industries Canada supercluster and acting quickly on plans for new “big water” infrastructure.  | File photo

Ingredients for progress suggested

Federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is making serious efforts to respond to grievances among prairie farmers about defects in farm support programs like AgriStability. AgriStability was intended to underpin farm incomes when, through no fault of their own, farmers’ operating margins drop below longer-term averages. The program is cost-shared with 60 percent of the funding […] Read more