Reading Time: < 1 minute The University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine is expanding its diagnostic service unit for enhanced animal disease diagnosis and welfare. A four-year pilot will add a clinical microbiologist, an anatomic pathologist and support staff to the unit. This will allow it to “support livestock producers through private veterinary clinics in rural Alberta, protect public […] Read more
Pilot project expands animal disease diagnostics
Opinion: We need to open the farm gate wide
Consumers want to see in, and farmers need to know what is happening beyond their operation
Reading Time: 3 minutes The first half of 2020 was amazing for agriculture as Canadians were focused on food quality and security. Consumers were interested in being part of the solution and, at the very least, wanted more information about where their food came from. Local became in vogue and instead of standing in line at the checkout, many […] Read more
U.S. to remove tariffs on Canadian aluminum
Ottawa drops threat of retaliation on stock trailers, fencing, other aluminum goods
Washington/Ottawa | Reuters — The Trump administration said on Tuesday it will remove 10 per cent U.S. tariffs on raw Canadian aluminum as long as imports of the metal stay below levels that are expected to “normalize” over the next four months. In response, Canada dropped a threat to impose billions of dollars of retaliatory […] Read more
Canada may unveil retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods Tuesday
Stock trailers could be among affected aluminum wares
Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will announce on Tuesday that it is going ahead with a threat to slap retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods after Washington said it would impose punitive measures on Canadian aluminum imports, CTV said on Monday. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said last month that Ottawa would impose sanctions on $3.6 […] Read more
Bibeau not considering closing AgriInvest accounts
Minister wouldn't order farmers to pull funds
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is not considering ordering producers to withdraw from their AgriInvest accounts. “Not in this way. All the options are on the table for the future, but I’ve never considered asking them to withdraw, to empty their accounts, to face COVID-19,” she said in an interview Friday. Bibeau had previously expressed […] Read more
Montreal’s veterinary college to study eastward expansion
Province backs feasibility study for Rimouski-based program
With a eye on expanding livestock veterinary services in the Lower St-Lawrence and Gaspesie, the Quebec government is backing a feasibility study to bring veterinary studies to the region. The province on Thursday announced assistance of $627,946 for 2019-20 for a feasibility study making a business case to offer the Universite de Montreal’s veterinary medicine […] Read more
B.C. ag ministry to take over regulation for on-farm slaughter
Class D- and E-licensed sites to move to ag ministry oversight
British Columbia is set to consolidate all provincial-level meat inspection duties into its agriculture ministry — including the regulatory oversight for on-farm slaughter work. The province announced Wednesday that all slaughter work licensed under its Meat Inspection Regulation for Class A, B, D and E sites will now be regulated through the ag ministry, starting […] Read more
Newfoundland to revamp ag oversight in shuffle
MHA Elvis Loveless to handle ag and fisheries files
Newfoundland and Labrador’s new premier plans a “realignment” for several of the provincial government’s departments — including a slightly different home and a new minister for the agriculture file. Dr. Andrew Furey, who was sworn in Wednesday to replace Dwight Ball as premier, announced a new cabinet the same day for the province’s Liberal minority […] Read more
Feds line up projects for surplus food program
NGOs backed to gather, distribute 12 million kg of food
The federal government has lined up eight projects to source and distribute perishable produce, meat, eggs and seafood piling up across Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the federal pandemic response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in early May that Ottawa would budget $50 million for a food surplus purchase program. The […] Read more
Bovine TB probe wraps with no exact point of entry found
'More stringent' tests now being run on U.S. rodeo cattle imports
Federal inspectors have formally closed the book on a 2018 outbreak of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a British Columbia cattle herd, but with “no definitive source of infection” found. The probe dates back to October that year, when a beef cow of an unknown age, from a cow-calf operation in B.C.’s southern Interior, was culled, […] Read more
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