0ttawa Watching railway customer Rob Davies and railway spokesman Cliff Mackay debate railway regulation was like watching Abbott and Costello, except this was improv. “I just don’t think regulations create win-win solutions,” Mackay, president of the Railway Association of Canada, said during a panel discussion here Nov. 16 during a grain industry symposium organized by
Broad Shipper Coalition Pushing Hard For Rail Regulation
Farmers Making Progress In Fight For Better Rail Service
Ken Rosaasen has witnessed previous grain transportation battles right back to Hall Commission in the 1970s and believes farmers and grain companies are making some headway this time around. “I think the transportation issue is moving on to the front burner and I think it’s going to stay there,” the University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist
Delmar Commodities Sold To Local Buyers
What’s next for a man who has moved grain elevators up mountains and built a successful grain-marketing and -processing empire from big industry’s castoffs? Martin Harder is thinking he might write a book about his journey from broke farmer to grain broker to successful grain company president. “I think I have a story to tell,”
Cmemap Pays $40.5 Million In Manitoba
About 1.74 million acres or nearly two per cent of Manitoba cropland was either too wet to seed this spring or the seeded crops drowned, the Manitoba Agr icultural Services Corporation says. The losses prompted $40.5 million in payments to farmers under the Canada-Manitoba Excess Moisture Assistance Program (CMEMAP). “We had applications from all areas
Learning The Grain Business One Load At A Time
Martin Harder learned the grain-buying business by trial and error and looking back he probably wouldn’t have it any other way. He grew up at MacGregor, got married in 1968 and started farming. It was tough sledding and by 1970, Harder made the decision it was time to earn a living and got into the
Regulating Railways Finds Rare Consensus
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association (WCWGA) can agree on one thing – more regulation is needed to improve railway service for farm commodities. The Grain Growers of Canada, Canadian Canola Growers Association and the Western Grain Elevators Association say the same. All have sent that message to a panel
Good Corn Yields And Quality
Manitoba corn yields and quality are believed to be higher than average this year, in part because of better weather, but also because of improved varieties. And the quest for even better corn hybrids for Manitoba is getting a boost from a new research project involving corn growers in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada
S – for Nov. 18, 2010
everal years ago the federal government agreed it would pass a law requiring petroleum diesel fuel contain two per cent biodiesel. But so far, it hasn’t done it. Canadian canola grower associations want that renewable fuel standard in place April 1, 2011 and are urging farmers to lobby their MPs to make it happen. “If
Mix-Up Affects Five Per Cent Of CWB Ballots
More than 1,400 ballots issued for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) directors’ elections in odd-numbered districts this fall have been voided and new ones mailed out. A computer glitch had some farmers voting in the wrong district, CWB election co-ordinator Ian Craven of Meyers Norris Penny explained in an interview Nov. 5. “It was very
Atamanenko Takes Motion To End C-474 Hearings Personally
Norma l l y, mot ions such as the one to extend hearings on Bill C-474, are rubber stamped by Parliament. But Alex Atamanenko, the NDP MP for B.C. Southern Interior, says the Conservatives engineered the motion’s defeat in the House of Commons Oct. 27. Atamanenko, who is a member of the House of Commons’