OTTAWA – The federal government is abolishing the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation advisory committee, but it will be no real loss.
The committee has been inactive, unfunded and without members for the past quarter century.
“It has been a paper organization only,” a PFRA spokesperson said. “It was useful when PFRA was started but hasn’t been used for years.”
As part of a legislative cleanup of government agencies announced by Treasury Board president Marcel MassŽ, there also will be some minor changes to the Canadian Grain Commission.
Read Also
Russian wheat exports start to pick up the pace
Russia has had a slow start for its 2025-26 wheat export program, but the pace is starting to pick up and that is a bearish factor for prices.
Like all agencies whose members are appointed by the cabinet, new rules for hearing disciplinary complaints will now be set out in law.
They include the government’s ability to call an inquiry, headed by a judge, to investigate complaints of wrongdoing by a commissioner.
Also under the legislation, money paid to grain commission members will be called remuneration instead of a salary.
“It is really housekeeping,” said commission spokesperson Paul Graham. “I don’t think changing what you call how they get paid will change much.”
New grant distributor
The director of the Saskatoon-based Veterinary Infectious Disease Organization has been appointed to the national science research granting body.
#Lorne Babiuk’s appointment to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council was announced last week by federal industry minister John Manley.
The council dispenses science and research grants to universities.
Attracting a UN site
The federal government will pay $4 million over five years if the United Nations agrees to locate in Montreal the headquarters for its fight against the desert.
The world body is considering sites for the permanent secretariat to oversee the UN convention to combat desertification.
Canada has been active in the negotiations to develop an international response to the spread of the desert throughout the world. It argues Canada’s successful efforts on the Prairies during the dust bowl years give it some history on the issue.
The Quebec and Montreal governments have also promised to kick in more than $1 million if the UN chooses Montreal when it picks a site later this year.
Voters’ list proposed
With election talk increasingly prominent in Ottawa, one Toronto MP is trying to raise interest in creating a permanent voters’ list in Canada.
Liberal Tony Ianno has proposed a private member’s bill to create a permanent list which would eliminate the need for costly and inconvenient enumerations before every vote.
While this bill is unlikely to make it into law, it is an idea that federal elections officials have mulled over in the past.
The House debate on Ianno’s proposal might spark more official interest in the idea.
