Quebec Archives | Alberta Farmer Express

Aurora Cannabis to shut five Canadian grows

Closures mean layoffs for 30 per cent of firm's production staff

Edmonton marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis is poised to close five of its grow sites across Canada and lay off almost a third of its production workforce. The company on Tuesday announced next steps in the “business transformation plan” it launched in February to “better align the business financially with the current realities of the cannabis […] Read more

General

Quebec Liberals name new agriculture critic

New leader names former Laval police officer to handle ag file

By Dave Bedard, GFM Network News June 17, 2020

Quebec’s official opposition Liberals have shuffled their shadow cabinet and moved their labour critic, a former police officer, to the agriculture portfolio. Dominique Anglade, who was named last month as the Liberals’ new leader, on Tuesday appointed Jean Rousselle, MNA for the Laval-area riding of Vimont, as the party’s critic for public safety and for […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock

Quebec pork plant to restart at reduced pace

Olymel plant closed due to COVID-19 cases

By GFM Staff, GFM Network News April 12, 2020

Olymel plans to gradually bring a hog plant in Quebec’s Mauricie region out of a two-week shutdown starting Tuesday following a number of COVID-19 cases among its employees. The meat packing arm of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group announced Saturday it will resume slaughter and cutting operations at Yamachiche, Que. starting Tuesday. Nine people working at […] Read more

General, Weather

Quebec ag lender offers break on loan payments

Crop insurance enrolment deadline also postponed

By GFM Staff, GFM Network News March 24, 2020

Quebec’s provincial farm lending agency is set to offer a six-month moratorium on loan repayments to any customers who ask for one, against what it describes as a “crisis” for the ag sector. La Financiere agricole du Quebec (FADQ) said Saturday the six-month stay would help lighten the obligations for farm businesses, providing them liquidity […] Read more

Crops, Reuters

Protestors put up new rail, road barricades in wake of arrests

By Denise Paglinawan, Steve Scherer, GFM Network News February 25, 2020

Ottawa/Toronto | Reuters — Protesters in Canada have blocked train lines, Vancouver’s port entrance and at least one highway in Quebec Tuesday in response to the arrest of 10 indigenous protesters on Monday as police cleared a three-week rail barricade in southern Ontario. Ontario Provincial Police on Monday arrested some of the Tyendinaga Mohawk campaigners […] Read more

Dairy Cattle, Livestock, Machinery & Shop

Quebec ag co-op to power up on dairy cattle manure

By GFM Staff December 16, 2019

About a dozen Quebec dairy farms will be getting their collective manure together next year for the province’s first-ever ag co-operative devoted to renewable natural gas. Coop Agri-Energie Warwick, launched Monday, plans to start construction this spring on a $12 million biomethanization plant which will take in slurry and manure from dairy cattle mixed with […] Read more

Corn, Crops, Soybeans, Weather

StatsCan shows corn, soy output down across board

By GFM Staff December 10, 2019

Despite increases in Ontario’s harvested acres for both soybeans and corn, the province’s production of both crops in 2019 followed the rest of Canada’s lower in Statistics Canada’s latest estimates. StatsCan’s November estimates for production of principal field crops, released Friday, dropped Canada’s production of soybeans to six million tonnes, down 18.5 per cent from […] Read more

Hogs, Livestock

F. Menard’s pork industry assets cleared for sale

By Dave Bedard November 28, 2019

Antitrust regulators have cleared the path for La Coop federee to take up a significantly larger, vertically integrated share of its home province’s pork packing, feed milling and hog production sectors. The agribusiness co-operative announced Thursday its Olymel and Sollio Agriculture arms have “received the green light” from the federal Competition Bureau to buy the […] Read more

Crops, Machinery & Shop, Markets, Reuters

CN, Teamsters reach deal to end strike

By Allison Lampert November 26, 2019

Montreal | Reuters — Teamsters Canada and Canadian National Railway on Tuesday said they reached a tentative deal to end a strike at the country’s largest railroad that had entered its eighth day, disrupting supply chains across the country. “We have a deal,” a CN spokesman said. The union said normal operations will resume on […] Read more

Crops, Machinery & Shop, Weather

Union says propane shortfalls may be CN’s own making

By GFM Staff November 22, 2019

Propane shortages for grain dryers and heating fuel in the wake of a strike by Canadian National Railway (CN) conductors and yard workers appear to be “largely manufactured” by the railway, according to the union for the striking workers. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC-CTY), which represents over 3,000 CN staff in Canada who walked […] Read more

Prairie livestock vet named B.C.’s chief veterinarian

U.S. livestock: Hog futures weaken, cattle futures advance

Beef Breeds Council becomes arm of CCA

GFM Network News