RCMP hold public safety meetings

Federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale says the public meetings Saskatchewan’s 87 RCMP detachments are holding will help open lines of communication. Speaking to reporters in Regina March 9, the minister said the fact that people at some of the first meetings have said they would defend their property any way they can is concerning. […] Read more

Retirement requires rewards

Q: I hope that you have some ideas for me. I retired last spring. I was 73. I guess that is a little later than it is for most guys who retire, but I never really worried about it. For the past 30 plus years I had been a parts man at one of our […] Read more

Many contracts for renewable energy projects such as wind farms have no requirement for site reclamation, and there’s no equivalent to the Orphan Well Association that exists in Alberta for the oil and gas industry.  |  File photo

Caution urged with renewable energy contracts

Landowners told protections provided when dealing with oil and gas companies don’t apply to wind and solar sectors

TABER, Alta. — Southern Alberta’s abundance of sun and wind continues to attract proposals for wind and solar farms, but landowners should be wary about the contents of any contracts they sign, says a landowner advocate. Daryl Bennett, vice-president of industry and government regulatory affairs for the My Landman Group, said those who negotiate contracts […] Read more


Agriculture tackles mental health

OTTAWA — Stewart Skinner has stood on that edge between despair and death. And the Ontario hog farmer could have been there again just a few weeks ago if he hadn’t dealt with his mental illness. “I came very, very close to killing myself in a pig barn in 2013,” he told a rural mental […] Read more

The federal Liberal government has introduced new gun control measures and insists they won't lead to another long gun registry. | Screencap via Twitter/@JustinTrudeau

Ottawa proposes new gun control measures

The federal Liberal government has introduced new gun control measures and insists they won’t lead to another long gun registry. However, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale noted that gun violence is increasing in rural areas, and many offences do involve unregistered guns. “To be clear, as promised, we are not reinstating any federal long gun […] Read more


Environment and Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot, a long-time green campaigner, wrote on Twitter that pesticide use must be reduced, pollution curbed and a battle waged against tampering with soil. He gave no concrete suggestions as to how. | Screencap via lejournal.cnrs.fr

Birds in rural France wiped out at ‘dizzying’ rate

PARIS (Reuters) – Bird populations are collapsing in rural France at a catastrophic rate, according to two studies published on Tuesday which drew a link to the intense use of pesticides in farming. Various species including the Eurasian skylark and the common whitethroat have seen their numbers decline by a third over the past 15 […] Read more

The Saskatchewan government says it's willing to look at current trespass laws that put the onus on landowners to post their land to keep others out. | File photo

Sask. considers reviewing trespass laws

The Saskatchewan government says it’s willing to look at current trespass laws that put the onus on landowners to post their land to keep others out. “Maybe it should be the other way around,” said Justice Minister Don Morgan after a bear pit session during the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention. “I think […] Read more

Any person in Montana who uses force to defend himself can use that force only if they or another person are at risk of physical harm. | File photo

Stand your ground

CORRECTION – March 17, 2018 – 1420 CST – This story originally misspelled the name of the man shot by Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley. The young man shot by Gerald Stanley was Colten Boushie. In Montana it’s legal to stand your ground when threatened by another person. The law in Montana, however, doesn’t give landowners […] Read more


Calgary’s urban area expanded to 754 sq. km in 2013 from 242 sq. km in 1984, indicative of increasing urban sprawl in Alberta.  |  Mike Sturk photo

Growing Alta. cities gobble up prime farmland

Alberta’s cities have an insatiable appetite for farmland, a recent study from the Alberta Land Institute reveals. In the Edmonton-Calgary corridor, urban development had swallowed 4,763 sq. kilometres of land as of 2013, a 52 percent increase from 1984, when the figure was 3,127 sq. km. In that same period, Calgary’s urban area expanded to […] Read more

Gloria and Calvin Penner are happy to see their children taking an interest in the farm.  |  Ed White photo

Man. producers keep the family in family farm

ELM CREEK, Man. — The Penners aren’t trapped in farming. It’s a lifestyle they have embraced from one generation to the next. “I always enjoyed the farm life, but I didn’t ever think I’d grow up and live on a grain farm,” said Gloria Penner, who lives with her husband, Calvin, on a farm in […] Read more