OTTAWA — The buying spree for farm equipment that started last year continued apace during the first quarter of the new year, according to the farm machinery industry.
Industry officials say it is further evidence that the decade-long decline in equipment sales has ended and the long-anticipated pent-up demand is in play.
To the end of March, sales of self-propelled combines were up almost 180 percent over last year’s sales levels — to 458 units from 164 last year.
Sales of farm tractors were up almost 24 percent to 2,769 from 2,237, according to figures published by the Canadian Farm and Industrial Equipment Institute.
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Delay boundary change
The Conservative-dominated Senate last week was threatening for the first time to flex its muscles in turning down or amending a piece of legislation approved by the Liberal-dominated House of Commons.
A bill to postpone for at least two years the redrawing of constituency boundaries was approved by the Commons over the opposition of Reform MPs who said it was being done to help Liberal chances in the next election.
Liberals said the entire process of redrawing boundaries must be reviewed because after each new census, the House of Commons is expanded and it will become unwieldy.
According to the latest census results, rural Canada would lose some seats to the cities and six new seats would be added — four in Ontario and two in B.C.
Last week, Senate Conservatives threatened to thwart or delay the will of the elected Commons unless the government promised to carry out a redistribution before the next election.
The last time there was a Senate-Commons confrontation was when the then-Liberal-dominated Upper House refused to approve the goods and services tax. Then the Conservative government stuffed in more Conservative appointments to give itself a majority.
Food subsidy
The federal government announced last week that it will spend $14.1 million this fiscal year to subsidize the movement of food into isolated northern communities.
For more than 20 years, Canada Post has been flying in parcels of nutritious perishable food to northern communities that are not accessible by surface transportation year-round.
The government says the “food mail” program will provide supplies to approximately 125 isolated communities in northern Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Labrador and the Northwest Territories.
