Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Conservative government, seeking re-election this year, delivered a federal budget Tuesday that promised a slim surplus despite the oil price crash, while offering goodies to seniors and small businesses and boosting security spending. It will mark Canada’s first surplus in eight years, accomplished with the help of the sale of […] Read more
Eyes on election, Tories balance budget with asset sales
Raitt won’t tell railways where to ship grain for now
Ottawa | Reuters — The Canadian government will not, for now, start telling railways where to ship farmers’ grain but it will decide within days whether to extend its requirements on how much grain they must haul, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said Wednesday. In an interview in her parliamentary office, Raitt said farmers and shippers […] Read more
Railways can’t dictate terms on grain backlog, Harper says
Reuters — Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway have such huge market power that they cannot be allowed to dictate how Canada’s grain shipment backlog is cleared, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Harper said in an appearance in Saskatchewan that the grain backlog was not nearly as bad as it was a […] Read more
Canada demands oil trains carry more insurance, levy imposed
Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will increase the insurance railways must carry when they haul crude oil and impose a levy on shippers to help cover the cost of major accidents in the burgeoning oil-by-rail industry, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said Friday. Raitt unveiled the measures in a bill which responds largely to the 2013 […] Read more
CN fines over grain shipments to proceed, Ritz says
Ottawa | Reuters — The Canadian government dismissed on Tuesday complaints from Canadian National Railway (CN) that fines for failing to ship the required minimum amounts of grain were unfair because there was not enough demand. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said there was a backlog of grain waiting for CN to move, even though it […] Read more
CWB 2.0 backs out of directors’ court challenge
A court challenge of the new law ending the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly proceeded in a Manitoba court on Friday, while the government insisted it was full steam ahead on its market-opening plans, and grain handler Viterra began offering forward contracts. Eight now-former farmer directors of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), who had launched […] Read more
Tories aim to end CWB single desk in 2012
Canada’s Conservative government will likely introduce legislation this autumn that will end the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on wheat and barley in 2012, the returning federal agriculture minister said Wednesday. Western Canada’s grain industry has operated since the Second World War under a monopoly that forces farmers to sell wheat and barley to the […] Read more
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