Western Canada is suffering from inadequate infrastructure to get commodities to tidewater, but the path to address the shortcoming is unclear. In 2012, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved to fast track the approval process for large infrastructure projects in Canada by giving cabinet ministers discretion on the scope of environmental assessments needed for developments. […] Read more
Tag Archives Blog
BLOG: Looking at construction through the gender lens
During the G20 meeting at Buenos Aires, Argentina, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau discussed why it’s important to look through a gender lens when considering large infrastructure projects. “You might not say what does a gender lens have to do with building this new highway or pipeline. Well, there are gender impacts when you bring construction […] Read more
BLOG: Should public scientists talk to the public?
In November of 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a mandate letter to each of his ministers, including Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay. In the letter, Trudeau made it clear that the federal government should be open and transparent. “It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people […] Read more
Grinning and bearing it on NAFTA2
I doubt I’m the only Canadian not exactly celebrating the official Big Man Signing of NAFTA2, which happened this morning. After all, it’s pretty much a case of Canada and Mexico making a bunch of concessions in order to stop U.S. President Donald J Trump tearing up NAFTA entirely and leaving us in a never-ending […] Read more
Mr. Trump finds the right war
On being merely half-wrong twice a day
Every stopped clock is right twice a day, and Donald Trump is probably right on China, methinks. Or at least half-right. It’s an ugly situation right now for U.S. farmers, who are losing and fearing to lose sales of grains and meats to the gigantically consuming nation as the Trump-launched war’s repercussions come home. But […] Read more
BLOG: Canada underfunds efforts to build public trust in ag
Agri-food is a $110 billion industry in Canada. Canola, just canola, supports 250,000 jobs and has a $26 billion impact on Canada’s economy, based on a 2016 study. Those numbers are eye-popping — as is another financial statistic from Canada’s ag sector, but not in a good way. A few years ago, like-minded groups and […] Read more
10 years after: Time for The Great Normalization?
I have been posting to this blog for a decade now. Hurrah!!!! My blog began once our website became blog-enabled and I jumped into it with relish just days after returning to work on October1, 2008, after having taken eight months off to look after my firstborn baby daughter, Noella. My mind was certainly refreshed […] Read more
Day of reckoning coming for pre-harvest glyphosate?
Five years ago, about half of the pigs in Canada were raised with ractopamine. In 2018 the percentage is basically zero. Use of the feed additive, which increases the rate of gain for hogs, dropped to nothing because Canada’s pork industry listened to market signals. Major buyers, like China and Russia, didn’t want pork with […] Read more
The science of division vs. the pursuit of truth
Is it just me, or is it getting harder to tell the difference between fact and fiction? Thanks to the internet and social media, we have more information and more opinions at our fingertips every day. But as the amount of information available to us increases, it takes more time and mental energy to sort […] Read more
One last post from the old ‘bux
On tumult in the ag trade and industry
This is the last blog post I’ll be writing from my preferred venue of the Starbucks in the base of one of Portage and Main’s towers. I’ll still be blogging and blithering in this digital space on the internet, but this physical space in the core of Winnipeg’s and Canada’s grain business is disappearing on […] Read more
