What they describe as the worst rail service in three years has prompted shippers to propose amendments to toughen the federal government’s proposed Fair Rail Freight Service Act. A coalition of shippers laid out proposals Friday for new amendments to the Act, now proposed in federal Bill C-52, in a bid to help balance their […] Read more
Extra teeth demanded for rail service bill
Wheat registration system faces review
Contentious A working group will respond, but some members argue the system needs tweaking, not a major overhaul
Reading Time: 4 minutes The panel of experts that reviews the merits of new cereal varieties was greeted by a letter from Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz suggesting that they were an “unnecessary regulatory burden.” “I am challenging you to think about the future of variety registration and how best to ensure that Canada has an approach going forward that […] Read morePowerful interests behind Ritz’s views on wheat registration
Reading Time: 3 minutes Allan Dawson attended the Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting recently. Here’s his analysis on calls to change the registration system for western Canadian wheats. Calls to reform Western Canada’s wheat variety registration system boil down to the classic Canadian schism — the public and collective-managed approach versus letting the market decide. True to form, […] Read more
Man. crop insurance to expand areas for heat-loving crops
Manitoba’s crop insurance program will expand provincewide on a test basis this year in its coverage of soybeans, corn, open-pollinated corn, edible beans, sunflowers and lentils. Until now, those crops were only insurable in areas deemed to be warm enough, and with enough frost-free days. However, farmers from outside those areas have been asking for […] Read more
Pink slips issued as Canadian Grain Commission prepares for end of subsidies
Cutbacks The commission is cutting its budget by $30 million and that will affect about 300 positions
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Grain Commission is cutting jobs — although the exact number has yet to be determined. About 300 of the agency’s 700 workers are in “impacted positions” and some have already received letters declaring their positions “surplus,” said spokesman Remi Gosselin. “Of the 300 impacted positions, I would say about 230 perform inspection and […] Read moreGrain commission considering expanding security program to feed mills
discussions The question is where do you draw the line, says commissioner Murdoch MacKay
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) is considering whether it can expand its proposed new insurance-based payment security program to non-licensed buyers such as feed mills. “We at the commission have had some discussions about it and we’re looking at it,” CGC commissioner Murdoch MacKay told reporters after speaking at the Keystone Agricultural Producers’ (KAP) annual […] Read moreSupreme Court of Canada won’t hear CWB appeal
Reading Time: 2 minutes With their appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada rejected, the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board (FCWB) are vowing to continue with a class-action lawsuit, their last remaining legal avenue for challenging the federal government’s decision to end the board’s monopoly last year. The Supreme Court has refused to hear appeals of the eight […] Read more
CWB wants to privatize sooner rather than later
Reading Time: 3 minutes The CWB is talking to potential partners about taking the government-owned grain company private sooner than later. “We’ve been talking to people already in the grain industry, and people who are not and want to invest in it,” Gord Flaten, the CWB’s vice-president for grain procurement, told reporters Jan. 16. “That involves either positioning ourselves […] Read more
Prairie farm writer Rod Edwards, 72
Veteran farm reporter and former Manitoba Co-operator associate editor Rod Edwards has died following a battle with cancer. Edwards passed away Jan. 9 at age 72 at Winnipeg’s Riverview Health Centre. He worked as a reporter for the Canadian Press news agency and for the Winnipeg Free Press before joining the Co-operator in the mid-1980s. […] Read more
Farmers left in lurch on sale of Man. hog producer
Manitoba farmers owed at least $1 million for feed grain delivered to financially troubled hog producer Puratone Corp. are left holding an empty bag with the company’s pending sale to Maple Leaf Foods. Earlier this month Toronto-based Maple Leaf, which operates a major hog-slaughtering plant at Brandon, Man., announced it was buying Puratone, one of […] Read more
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