Reading Time: < 1 minute The province and Ottawa are giving $2.5 million to Ag for Life so the non-profit can promote ag careers and help companies with recruitment and worker retention. Best known for its classroom education program, Ag for Life will distribute two types of grants aimed at helping reduce a labour shortage in the ag and food […] Read more
Program targets worker shortage, promotes careers in ag
Alberta eyes another blockbuster irrigation project
Proposed $1.3-billion project would transform east-central Alberta
Reading Time: 4 minutes The east side of Alberta could see revolutionary change if a $1.3-billion plan to irrigate 108,000 acres in the Special Areas and Municipal District of Acadia moves ahead. “Special Areas has everything it needs to become a highly productive agricultural area – everything except a reliable supply of water,” Jordon Christianson, chair of the Special […] Read more
Irrigation districts laud provincial support of sector
Irrigation, already a driver in the province’s economy, is ramping up with a huge expansion
Reading Time: 4 minutes One thing is certain: Alberta’s irrigation sector has the ear of the provincial government. The sector, which is in the midst of an expansion worth nearly $1 billion, now gets top-line billing in the recently revamped Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation ministry. Its new deputy minister, Bassano-area crops and cattle producer Jason Hale, was chair of […] Read more
Horner back as ag minister, Toews returns to finance in new cabinet
The ag ministry is being revamped again, with forestry split off and irrigation added
Reading Time: 2 minutes Nate Horner has returned as Alberta agriculture minister but his portfolio has been revamped by new Premier Danielle Smith. Formerly the minister of agriculture, forestry and rural economic development, Horner is now minister of agriculture and irrigation. “I look forward to building on our government’s historic investment of nearly $1 billion in irrigation infrastructure and […] Read more
Expansion of Alberta’s vet college hailed as ‘bold investment’
Pledge to give U of Calgary $59 million for expansion is a major ag item in provincial budget
Reading Time: 2 minutes The province is giving more money to train large-animal vets, standing pat on its funding of ag research, and apparently making big gains in cutting red tape. The most eye-catching ag-related item in the Alberta government’s Feb. 24 budget was the pledge of $59 million over three years for “infrastructure to expand the veterinary medicine school […] Read more
Province funds watershed protection
Reading Time: < 1 minute In the midst of the outcry over coal mining and its impact on water, the provincial government is giving $1 million to Cows and Fish for “projects and initiatives that protect creeks and streams along Alberta’s Eastern Slopes.” The organization, formally called the Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society, will work with other groups on specific […] Read more
Made-in-Alberta carbon tax poised to return, but no details yet
Farm groups want carbon capture payments, premier says ‘all options’ on the table
Reading Time: 3 minutes Premier Jason Kenney isn’t saying what’s next after losing a court battle to declare the carbon tax unconstitutional — but his options appear to be limited. “There are better ways to help the environment than by punishing people for living ordinary lives, for heating their homes and driving to work,” Kenney said following the Supreme […] Read more
AFSC closing five one-person offices
Reading Time: < 1 minute Agriculture Financial Services Corporation is closing five one-person offices and amalgamating them with larger neighbouring offices. “These one-employee offices provided limited services to a small numbers of clients,” AFSC said in a release. The five offices to be closed are in High Prairie, High River, Rimbey, Smoky Lake and Spirit River. “These are very difficult […] Read more
‘Actively trying’ to attract value-added processing, says minister
Government says more processing is a priority, but opposition says other provinces pulling ahead
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta is lagging behind the other Prairie provinces when it comes to plant protein processing — but the provincial government is working on it, says the agriculture minister. “Whether it’s canola processing, plant proteins, greenhouses, agri-technology, hemp — there are numerous types of commodities that we’re trying to attract value-added investment domestically and internationally to […] Read more
RDAR hires chief executive
Reading Time: < 1 minute Mark Redmond is the new CEO of Results Driven Agriculture Research, the new body funding ag research in the province. He was most recently the director of incubation service at PEI BioAlliance and was previously associate dean at NAIT’s School of Health (from 2016-18) and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta (2011-17) and […] Read more
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