The Conservative government has announced it will spend $20 million less on Agriculture Canada, as part of a $2 billion general cost-cutting announcement. The largest reductions in budgeted spending for the department will be in a $10 million, two-year reduction of funds designed to help small provincially regulated slaughter plants in Ontario upgrade to federal […] Read more
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Agriculture Canada sees $20 million cut
Hearings examine poverty in rural areas
Senator Hugh Segal was well into middle age when he first realized the importance of an issue that has become a cause for this urban academic – the extent and effects of rural poverty. In 1998, he briefly abandoned life as an academic and public policy analyst to run for the leadership of the Progressive […] Read more
Firm offers to write letters for groups against CWB
A Regina communications company has proposed to three farm groups that they hire the firm to co-ordinate a letter writing campaign in favour of Ottawa’s plan to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk. The proposal was contained in an e-mail from Charlton Communications to officials with the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, the Western […] Read more
CGC report step backward: NFU
A report proposing sweeping changes to the Canadian Grain Commission and Canada Grain Act ignores farmers’ views and reduces their protection, says the National Farmers Union. “It’s a huge step backwards that fundamentally alters the role of the commission,” said NFU vice-president Terry Boehm. The report, commissioned by Parliament and written by Toronto-based consulting firm […] Read more
Quick movement promised on grain commission changes
Recommendations on how to reform the Canadian Grain Commission should be flowing from Parliament Hill before the end of the year, says the chair of the parliamentary committee that will be studying the issue. A federally commissioned consultant’s report released in mid-September recommended a dramatic overhaul of the rules governing the century-old grain industry regulator. […] Read more
Sask. pushes biofuel focus
Saskatchewan’s deputy premier used the launch of a Regina biofuel test centre last week as an opportunity to push for a national centre of excellence in that city. Clay Serby said the Saskatchewan Research Council, which houses the $1 million testing lab, along with farmers and other proponents of biodiesel and ethanol plants are leading […] Read more
Single deskers urged not to run
Incumbent Canadian Wheat Board directors who support single desk marketing should withdraw from this fall’s elections, says the president of the Western Barley Growers Association. Jeff Nielsen made the proposal in an open letter on the CWB issue released to the news media last week. In it, he urged farmers to vote for candidates who […] Read more
Rail car stand attacked
A transportation bill making its way through the House of Commons represents a betrayal of western grain farmer interests by the Conservative government that holds dozens of rural prairie seats, Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter said last week. Bill C-11, which is designed to amend the Canada Transportation Act, includes a provision to adjust grain […] Read more
Ont. tops up CAIS payout
The Ontario Liberal government last week announced $110 million in new agriculture program funding for the province. Most of it will flow to farmers eligible for retroactive payments because of a change in the way inventory is valued under CAIS for the 2003-05 program years. Ottawa announced the retroactive change in the rules for the […] Read more
Ethanol poised to change farming
Ethanol production in Western Canada is about to shift from a trickle to a steady flow, fueling an explosion that could forever change prairie agriculture. Husky Energy’s 130-million-litre plant in Lloydminster, Sask., was scheduled to officially open earlier this week, after deadlines for this issue. It is the first of three large-scale operations under construction […] Read more
