Concerns over Alberta’s labour laws | Liberal MLA says potato farms fail to protect farm workers
A prominent Alberta Liberal MLA plans to amplify his calls for a boycott of Alberta potatoes and other farm produce until the province’s Progressive Conservative government enacts labour laws that better protect farm workers. Dr. David Swann, former party leader and now health and wellness critic for the Liberals, last week called on Frito-Lay, a […] Read moreTag Archives Ag Finance — page 7
MLA calls for spud boycott
CWB wades into canola markets
Canadian grain company CWB has expanded its 2012-13 marketing program to include canola, a crop that was planted on a record 21 million acres of prairie farmland this year. CWB president Ian White said the company will offer a canola pool this year but he acknowledged that total volumes could be relatively small and delivery […] Read more
More doctors seeking jobs and staying in rural Manitoba
Recruitment, retention initiatives working Manitoba government endorses recommendations of Brandon Medical Education Study
After years of struggling to recruit and retain doctors in rural areas, Manitoba is starting to make progress on the issue, says a rural health administrator in the province. John Stinson, chief executive officer of the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority, said more doctors are staying in rural communities and medical students are inquiring about jobs […] Read moreLabour law inclusion demanded for Alta. farms
Farm workers exempt from regulations | NDP, labour federation says government must take steps to protect workers
Lack of protection for Alberta farm workers was highlighted Aug. 20 by Alberta’s New Democrats and the Alberta Federation of Labour. The two groups used the occasion of the AFL-designated Alberta farm workers day to urge the provincial government to extend occupational health and safety laws and workers compensation benefits to farm employees. NDP agriculture […] Read moreMeet the new China
Chinese consumers today value brand names and the quality they represent. Economic change has been considerable in China since the early 1990s, and today there is an entire generation that has never known anything but prosperity, Andrew Wu said during a special seminar in Calgary sponsored by the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency. “The speed […] Read more
Farm definition too romantic: report
Traditional views and descriptions of the farm sector become less relevant as farms grow in size and production becomes more concentrated on larger operations, says a new think-tank report. Government programming should be designed to recognize the new reality of fewer and bigger farms rather than a “one size fits all” model that aims to […] Read more
Sask. producers await track assessment
Rail users in northeastern Sask-atchewan will soon have a clearer picture of whether a section of un-used railway between Birch Hills and Melfort is likely to be returned to service. Sinclair Harrison, president of the Hudson Bay Route Association, said an engineering study assessing the line’s condition is in its final draft and could be […] Read more
Planned pregnanciesa good start to life
Q: My wife and I had our first child a short while ago. He is a little boy, and what a delight he is. We are talking about having another child.The problem is that we are not sure when we should plan to do so. Some people tell us to wait two or three years […] Read more
Attention youth: town may need you
Forget all the worries about farmers getting old and retiring. A recent study shows that a wave of retirements is moving toward rural Canada, but it’ll hit Main Street first. However, researcher Ray Bollman said that while the retirement of rural professionals and service providers is a danger to small towns and the people who […] Read more
Pressure to abandon dairy protection rises: report
Supply management | Conference Board of Canada says changes will be needed to access foreign markets and increase milk volumes
Canada’s influential business-friendly think-tank, the Conference Board of Canada, has weighed in on the politically sensitive supply management debate, predicting changes are inevitable. As it released a George Morris Centre report Aug. 23 on the 1970s origins of dairy supply management, the conference board noted that Canada’s protectionist and regulated supply management systems for dairy, […] Read more
