It’s hard to imagine that a modest molecule of carbon and hydrogen can be sexy, but diesel is one of the sexiest investments on the planet at the moment, says an American petroleum analyst. “Everybody right now, if you talk to all the investment bankers and traders, they’ll tell you, ‘we love diesel, diesel is […] Read more
News
Diesel price tops gasoline
Future of Canada’s Arctic port questioned in post CWB industry
The Port of Churchill has loaded its last shipment of outgoing Canadian wheat for the year. The MV Champion Bay was loaded Oct. 31 and will carry 26,000 tonnes of spring wheat to West Africa. The Canadian Wheat Board shipped 507,000 tonnes of spring wheat and durum through the northern Manitoba port in 2011. That […] Read more
Gun registry demise begins
With the support of two northwestern Ontario New Democrats, the Conservative majority last week voted in principle to end the long gun registry. The House of Commons public safety committee is expected to open public hearings on the bill when Parliament resumes Nov. 14 after a week’s break. Public safety minister Vic Toews is scheduled […] Read more
Viterra shareholder group pushes for governance change
Canada’s largest grain company faces a shareholder challenge related to internal governance issues and the selection of new board members. Viterra’s largest shareholder, the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), criticized the company’s leadership last week, suggesting its plans to replace two outgoing board members are vague, insufficient and unresponsive to shareholder concerns. AIMCo, which owns […] Read more
Contract clause recognizes weather risk
When the weather gods curse prairie farmers, crop contractors have to offer act of God clauses, it seems. That’s how farmers are looking at contracts like the new Archer Daniels Midland Nexera canola contract that contains an act of God clause. “On the Prairies, we’ve seen such wild variability (in the weather) for the past […] Read more
Petroleum industry seeks new ways to improve environmental performance
RED DEER, Alta. — Energy companies install 13,000 kilometers of pipelines in Alberta every year, affecting 40,000 acres of land. Farmland is taken out of production, forests are removed and wetlands and water courses are disturbed during construction of trenches and pipelines. Ongoing complaints to resource companies about loss of productivity and harm to the […] Read more
CWB to spend $1.4 million on ad campaign
The Canadian Wheat Board is spending $1.4 million on a national advertising campaign aimed at galvanizing public support and convincing the Harper government to abandon plans to end single desk grain marketing. The campaign, which began last week with a full page advertisements in several major newspapers, will include newspaper ads, radio commercials and television […] Read more
Alta., B.C. promised more seats in Commons
The Conservative government is promising to pass legislation soon that will give Alberta and British Columbia six new seats each by the 2015 election to get them closer to proper representation. Along with 15 new seats planned for suburban Ontario, it is expected the expanded parliamentary base could be fertile political ground for the Conservatives. […] Read more
Hedge inputs to save margins
Farmers who fill their 25,000 litre fuel tanks this winter, only to see the price drop by 10 cents per litre afterward, stand to lose $2,500 compared to what they could have paid. Is there any way to hedge that? That’s the kind of question financial experts say farmers need to think about, and the […] Read more
Construction standards critical to safe extractions
RED DEER — It seemed as if energy companies could drill anywhere and the black gold would flow when they first began searching for oil. Many of those easy-to-access reservoirs have now been depleted and companies are using hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to remove gas and oil from rock and coal. The technology was first […] Read more
