Here is how Statistics Canada opened its commentary on the consumer price index June 22. “Consumer prices rose 1.2 percent in the 12 months to May, following a two percent increase in April. This 0.8 percentage point difference was mostly attributable to declines for gasoline prices.” Apparently, gasoline prices dropped 2.3 percent, following 22 months […] Read more
Tag Archives Ag Finance
Gasoline prices not following oil price drop
Supply management key to food security
Canada is a trading nation, blessed with abundant natural resources and a skilled workforce. On average, we export 80 percent of our farming and manufacturing production. While trade is important, we cannot negotiate away those agricultural institutions that give us a competitive advantage to simply increase our market access — most notably, our system of […] Read more
Food safety changes need backing for plan to work
It’s about time that Canadian food producers enjoyed oversight legislation that did not make them, in some respects, second class citizens in their own country. Imported food has generally flowed into Canada with less evaluation than food that is locally grown or processed. And there is much to evaluate: Canada imports food from 190 countries, […] Read more
Political drool factor not always good indicator of things to come
One of the little-analyzed political indicators is the drool factor. Sometimes it is a positive thing. Forty five years ago, a relatively unknown Montreal intellectual, union activist, iconoclast and Leonard Cohen buddy Pierre Trudeau decided to run for the Liberal party leadership. Among backroom party operatives and young (female) Liberals, drools all around. It worked […] Read more
Opposition group debates need, feasibility of power line
Based on wind generation potential If government subsidies drop and wind farms fail to materialize, producers say the line won’t be needed
TWIN BUTTE, Alta. — AltaLink has a fight on its hands with a proposal that would erect a 240 kilovolt electrical line through southwestern Alberta. More than 100 people gathered in Twin Butte June 20 to discuss how to prevent the Goose Lake to Etzikom Coulee line from being built. Members of the Chinook Area […] Read moreLawsuit pending over Alta. oil spill
A $75 million class action lawsuit has been launched against Plains Midstream Canada in connection with an oil spill near Sundre, Alta. About 475,000 litres of light sour crude oil spilled into the Red Deer River earlier this month and eventually flowed into Gleniffer Lake near Innisfail in central Alberta. About 90,000 people rely on […] Read more
MP spreads false information: marketing agencies
Canada’s supply management marketing agencies are accusing a Liberal politician of using misleading numbers and false arguments as she promotes the end of the system. Last week, former Liberal MP and trade critic Martha Hall Findlay issued a University of Calgary-sponsored report that argued supply management penalizes consumers with higher prices, jeopardizes poor families who […] Read more
Hall Findlay calls policy regressive, expensive
Diminished dairy influence cited | Liberal MP says politicians have little to fear from changes to supply managed systems
Former Liberal MP and trade critic Martha Hall Findlay issued an explosive call June 21 for an end to supply management. An hour later, MPs gathered in the House of Commons down the street from her news conference for the last question period before the 12-week summer break. There was not a single question to […] Read moreAlberta to sell mobile poultry slaughter plant that can process 100 birds per hour
Alberta Agriculture is selling its 53-foot, self contained, mobile poultry abattoir. The unit has its own generator and water and sewer system, which Bert Dening of the department said will allow even an inexperienced chicken plucking crew to process more than 100 birds an hour. The Mobile Poultry Abattoir has four rooms. The birds enter […] Read more
Specified risk materials find new life in recycled plastics
U of A research University asked to find creative uses for undesirable products of livestock industry
Getting rid of specified risk materials is a 300,000 tonne problem. These materials are the suspected carriers of BSE and under Canadian law must be destroyed and removed. However, destroying the disease agents found in brains, spinal cords and other potentially infected bits is costly. Enter researchers at the University of Alberta, who were asked […] Read more
