Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — Shippers scrambled to shift freight onto trucks on Thursday as a strike at Canada’s biggest railroad, Canadian National Railway, hit its third day, leaving the critical fuel propane and other goods stranded. Some 3,200 unionized employees, including conductors and yard workers, hit picket lines on Tuesday in the biggest such action […] Read more
Propane shortage looms as CN strike hits third day
Propane-starved East’s grain growers seek end to CN strike
Farmers fighting through a soggy harvest in Eastern Canada have joined their western counterparts’ call for an end to the strike by Canadian National Railway workers — not to get grain out, but to get propane in. Restoring the supply of propane for Quebec’s farm businesses, in the wake of a Canada-wide strike launched Tuesday […] Read more
Agropur to shut Montreal-area ice cream plant
A Quebec ice cream processing plant absorbed in 2017 by Canada’s biggest dairy co-operative will shut its doors in about 10 months’ time. Agropur Co-operative announced Friday it plans to close the former Les Aliments Lebel plant at Lachute, Que., just northwest of Montreal, in August 2020 and transfer the plant’s operations to other Agropur […] Read more
Poultry co-ops Exceldor, Granny’s to merge
Quebec poultry co-operative Exceldor is expanding its westward reach through a merger deal with Manitoba-based Granny’s Poultry Co-operative. The two co-ops announced the combination Wednesday, noting it’s already been approved by Granny’s producer members in a “unanimous” vote taken in May, and by the federal Competition Bureau in a decision last month. “The main objective […] Read more
Quebec books new PED outbreak
A weanling operation in Quebec’s Monteregie is home to the province’s first new case of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) in almost four years. The provincial agriculture ministry confirmed the new case Friday, marking Quebec’s first since May 2015 and its 17th since the disease first appeared in the province in February 2014. The Monteregie, the […] Read more
Mini-shuffle includes new federal agriculture minister
Vancouver MP Jody Wilson-Raybould’s exit from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet has led to a mini-shuffle and a new federal minister for agriculture and agri-food. Marie-Claude Bibeau, MP for the Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead since 2015, replaced Lawrence MacAulay as agriculture minister on Friday, becoming the first woman to handle the ag portfolio. MacAulay, the […] Read more
Abrupt mid-March shift into spring predicted
Winter conditions are expected to remain the norm across the Canadian Prairies through the middle of March, when a sudden pattern change brings an abrupt start to spring, according to the latest seasonal forecast from The Weather Network. The quick move from cold to warm conditions raises the risk of flooding in areas with a […] Read more
U.S. top court won’t hear Quebec farmers over foie gras ban
Washington | Reuters — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the latest challenge to California’s ban on foie gras, a delicacy produced from the enlarged livers of ducks and geese that have been force-fed corn. The court declined to hear an appeal by producers of foie gras, including the Association des Eleveurs de Canards […] Read more
Quebec rye production on the rise
CNS Canada — Rye production was up in Quebec in 2018, one reason being producers supplying hybrid rye for feed to the province’s hog industry. “Feed was coming from out west, but now we’re starting to produce the seed itself here,” said Andre Lussier, who farms near St. Hyacinthe, Que. and is a director with […] Read more
CAQ taps businessman as Quebec’s new ag minister
Quebec’s new governing party has turned to one of its more experienced MNAs to handle the farm file. Premier Francois Legault on Thursday named Andre Lamontagne, a businessman and former supermarket owner and the MNA for the southwestern riding of Johnson, as his minister of agriculture, fisheries and food, and as minister responsible for the […] Read more
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