Producers who sell to Canadian slaughter plants are being paid significantly less than those selling to the United States
For Canadian bison ranchers, the last 12 months have been good or awful. If a rancher has a business connection with a buyer in the United States and is exporting live bison there, then it’s been good. If not, it’s been awful. That’s because there’s a massive price gap, where bison sold into the U.S. […] Read moreTag Archives COVID-19 virus
Town sees opportunity to shift to online work
Trochu, Alta., promotes itself to city residents who no longer have to work in an office, but digital access remains a barrier
A small Alberta town views the growing number of city residents working online from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for rural communities to reverse a decades-long trend. The crisis has proven that many people don’t need to live in a city because they no longer have to commute daily to work, […] Read more
Organization and exercise can relieve pandemic stress
Q: It has been a little over a year now since all of us have fallen victim to the pandemic that knows no bounds. It is all over the place, breaking out with even more infections just when we think that we might have parts of it under control. I know you have written various […] Read more
MacDon adds 300 production jobs, including third shift
The company could not stand still listening to opportunity knock, looking for new and more precise farm equipment
MacDon is adding more than 300 new jobs to its main manufacturing plant in Winnipeg. The increase will facilitate the addition of a third shift at the farm equipment factory. “This means good paycheques going into 300 Winnipeg households,” said business development vice-president Gene Fraser in a phone interview. “The jobs will be in fabrication, […] Read more
Case made for extending cattle set-aside program
New U of C report finds that termination of the program hasn’t allowed the feeding sector to fully address the cattle backlog caused by COVID
An extension of the federal-provincial cattle set-aside program would benefit the sector by providing more security against price pressure should processing plants experience further shutdowns, a study suggests. The program provided funds to cattle feeders so they could hold back cattle when packing plants slowed production or temporarily closed last year due to COVID-19 outbreaks […] Read more
Alta. hog producers get relief
Two pieces of good news reached Alberta’s hog industry last week, a welcome respite from pressures exerted by the temporary closure of the Olymel processing plant in Red Deer. Olymel restarted operations March 3 and 4 after a 14-day hiatus caused by a major COVID-19 outbreak among workers. A day later, the Alberta and federal […] Read more
Recipients of prairie packer funds identified
Federal Emergency Processing Fund was announced last spring to help protect meat plant employees from COVID—19
Twenty-four meat processing operations across the Prairies have so far used $7.8 million in federal funds to support their safety measures and investments related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal Emergency Processing Fund was announced May 5, 2020, when the threats to meat processing became apparent during the pandemic, causing temporary closures and slowdowns. The […] Read more
Emergency processor funds distributed to 117 B.C. firms
Some 117 food processing companies in British Columbia have collectively received $17 million through the federal Emergency Processing fund established in May 2020. Carla Qualtrough, MP for Delta and minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion, released details of the recipient companies and the amounts provided during a March 5 news conference. Recipients used […] Read more
Union blasts safety measures, foreign worker system
A union representing thousands of Canadian food workers says “consistency and enforcement” remain a problem when it comes responses for its members during COVID-19 pandemic. Derek Johnstone, special assistant to the national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of Canada (UFCW), told a parliamentary committee on Feb. 18 that the past year […] Read more
FCL energy earnings drop, food profits climb
Last year was one for the books at Federated Co-op Limited. “From a financial perspective, 2020 really consisted of two distinct parts. The first four months went pretty much as planned and the last eight months went nothing like as planned,” said chief executive officer Scott Banda during FCL’s annual meeting March 1, which for […] Read more
