Trudeau, under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the next election, said at a news conference that parliament would be suspended until March.

That means Trudeau will still be prime minister on Jan. 20 when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs that would cripple Canada’s economy.

Trudeau, 53, took office in November 2015 and won reelection twice, becoming one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers.

But his popularity started dipping two years ago amid public anger over high prices and a housing shortage, and his fortunes never recovered.

Polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October, regardless of who the leader is.

Parliament was due to resume on Jan. 27 and opposition parties had vowed to bring down the government as soon as they could, most likely at the end of March.

But if Parliament does not return until March 24, the earliest they could present a non-confidence motion would be some time in May.

The post Trudeau says he will step down after new Liberal party leader named appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Why it matters: Migratory birds potentially carrying HPAI are on their way back to Canada.

The main economic impact of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy cattle has been reduced milk production, Dr. Samantha Uhrig noted. Most infected cattle have recovered.

“There’s been very few mortalities reported and they’re often associated with a secondary issue,” she said.

For the beef producer either in or just weeks past the calving season, reduced milk production becomes a matter of if there’s still enough to feed the calf.

There is investigation into where the virus is taking root in the body of infected animals, Uhrig noted but, so far, the virus seems to have a preference for mammary tissue. The few necropsies that have been done have shown little virus in other tissues.

Also, at least in New Mexico, only a small cross section of the infected dairy herds is actually getting sick. The average hovers around 10 per cent of animals in a herd.

“That really is a relatively small number in the grand scheme of things,” she said. “If there are subtle symptoms being overlooked, it’s hard to know at this point.”

Market impact is the bigger concern for the beef sector. Producers initially feared that mass dairy cullings could throw the beef market for a loop. That turned out to be unfounded as infected dairy cattle recovered, Uhrig noted. “We’ve already seen a drop in the number of cows culled from those infected dairies, so I don’t anticipate the market is going to be flooded with cull cows the way we were first concerned.”

The futures market, however, did take a hit. Speculation on the impact of dairy HPAI cases helped drop cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to their lowest in two months April 3.

“Although there has not been evidence that the virus can be passed through human food, some investors have been selling futures on fears that beef demand would decline,” Reuters reported at the time.

Experts cited in the article also noted other factors, unrelated to bird flu, contributing to the slide.

Infection status

As of April 5, the United States Department of Agriculture had confirmed the strain (labelled H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4B) in 15 dairy herds across five states: seven in Texas, two in Kansas, three in New Mexico and one each in Ohio, Idaho and Michigan. The virus was first confirmed in milk samples from Texas and Kansas in late March.

One human case, found in Texas in a person in contact with dairy cattle, had also been reported. The only symptom of that case was eye inflammation, officials later said.

On April 2, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller suggested that the outbreak may have actually started weeks earlier, when a mystery ailment blew through about 40 per cent of the state’s dairy operations.

As of the time of printing, there had been no reported cases in beef cattle.

The lack of beef cases has been a mystery for veterinarians in affected regions. “Everyone is scratching their head,” Michael Kleinhenz, a veterinarian and associate professor of dairy cattle health at Texas A&M University was quoted as saying in an early April article from Reuters.

“Here in the Texas panhandle, we have dairies next to feedlots, and cows in close proximity on range, and we’re only seeing it on dairies.”

Scarlett Madinger, vice-president of communications with the Kansas Livestock Association also noted the lack of beef cases. However, it’s “something that will remain on their radar,” she said.

“As of right now, there’s no specific steps being taken … but I think recommendations from the Kansas Department of Animal Health and upwards to the USDA would be similar to what they are for the dairies as far as making sure you’re protecting your water and feed resources from birds and wildlife as best as possible.

“I think that would apply to any livestock facility at this point, whether you’re beef or dairy. I think they would would implement any of those practices where possible.”

U.S. precautions

The New Mexico Department of Agriculture has released a list of recommendations to beef producers to keep the virus out. Those include monitoring bird activity, avoiding water sources heavily used by wild birds (a well-known vector of HPAI) and keeping water troughs as clean as possible.

Uhrig has also asked producers to separate out high-risk cattle from low-risk animals. Thus far, the virus has targeted older lactating cows.

Biosecurity efforts are also being recommended for feedlots. “Limit traffic on and off of the farm; keep speed bumps and water pumps clean on a regular basis and try to deter birds from congregating where feed and water sources are available,” Uhrig said.

There has been concerted effort from stakeholders to disseminate information to farmers, and both beef and dairy producers are more aware of the situation as a result, she added.

“We’ve been having calls almost daily to discuss this.”

One suggested cow-to-cow transmission in Idaho has been flagged, and the human case has also raised concern over how the virus can spread, but Uhrig believes there’s a strong possibility these were not direct, but a result of environmental infection.

“It’s not cow-to-cow transmission that we think we’re seeing, but cows that are maybe contaminating the environment that then allows that transfer to another cow,” she said.

At the same time, she said, “There’s still a lot of unknowns with that as we are working our way through the epidemiology and trying to understand how this transmission is occurring.”

Uhrig is also comforted by the virus’s apparent lack of hardiness.

“It doesn’t last very long in the environment. It has to have conditions that are just right. With milk, pasteurizing will kill the virus,” she said. “It doesn’t take a lot to kill the virus so elevated temperatures for a certain amount of time will certainly do that.

“And of course with the quality control that is in play in our meat and milk industry, anything that is abnormal is diverted away and destroyed so that it does not enter the food supply.”

The USDA has doubled down on messaging against the sale of raw milk and raw milk products, including cheese. Milk for human consumption must be pasteurized for interstate commerce.

American officials are also urging industry to pasteurize or heat treat any milk fed to calves or pets.

Canada does not permit the sale of raw milk, although allowances are in place for raw milk cheeses.

—With files from Reuters

The post Beef braces for bird flu appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Since his 2021 appointment, Goodale has pushed the U.K. to drop what Canada claims to be illegal restrictions on imports of Canadian beef. Canada has also struggled with the European Union over implementation of the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) since 2014.

When interviewed Nov. 28, 2023, Goodale was confident Canadian beef would eventually get access to the U.K. market. He still is, even though the U.K. paused negotiations Jan. 24 on a new post-Brexit trade deal with Canada.

In early 2021, Canada and the U.K. negotiated a Trade Continuity Agreement giving the U.K. continued access to the Canadian market. However, the U.K.’s three-year quota to export cheese to Canada expired Dec. 31, 2023.

“This time frame was clearly laid out in writing by both countries and is consistent with the U.K.’s terms of departure from the EU,” Goodale wrote in a Jan. 29 op-ed. “The U.K. bears the prime responsibility for dealing with the consequences.”

When it paused trade talks, the U.K. alluded to access to Canada’s cheese market and “the Rules of Origin.” Trading partners typically spell out such rules to define domestic goods eligible for tariff preferences, as opposed to non-domestic products that have too much foreign content to qualify for breaks, Goodale wrote.

“Canada has successfully negotiated sensible Rules of Origin in our multiple trade agreements with Europe (CETA), North America (CUSMA) and the Pacific region (CPTPP),” he wrote.

Goodale is confident that Canada will get access to the U.K. beef market because it is joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

“They can’t say they’re a member of the CPTPP and they’re going to ban Canadian beef. The rules of the CPTPP say that they cannot ban Canadian beef.”

The U.K. says it won’t import Canadian beef because it may contain hormones and/or been cleaned with products unapproved in the U.K. The hormones and cleaning products are “absolutely scientifically sound,” and are being used as non-tariff trade barriers, Goodale says.

“It may take a while to get the Brits in front of a tribunal that will adjudicate on this but they’ve already lost this issue twice in proceedings before the European regulators. So they’ll lose it again if they insist on resorting to a court proceeding with us. We’re not going to give in on this.”

The post Goodale brings ag trade experience to U.K. post appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“The sentiment of the industry is not the greatest right now,” said Desmond Sobool, FCC’s director of economics and deputy chief economist, speaking at the Canadian Crops Conference in Winnipeg in early March. “The good news is that the long-term sentiment is positive.”

Keeping abreast of economic conditions can help farmers plan for everything from equipment purchases to crop rotations.

According to Sobool, everyone agrees that interest rates have peaked, but there is less consensus on when they’ll come down. On March 7, the Bank of Canada again decided to maintain its key lending rate at five per cent.

Inflation is trending downward, though still stubbornly high, and the Bank of Canada’s policy is to keep inflation at two per cent or less.

“Overall inflation has been trending down,” said Sobool. “It peaked at just over eight per cent a year and a half ago and came in at 2.5 per cent in the most recent report in January.”

That’s what is known as “core inflation,” the year-over-year change with some of the volatile components, like fuel and food, removed.

“Inflation has been stuck in that three to four-and-a-half per cent range for a year and a half. So that’s that underlying price pressure,” he said, adding that FCC doesn’t expect to see rates come down until July.

That means producers will likely be making only essential investments in the short term.

“Buying an air drill or adopting a technology that might help soil conservation or nutrient retention might be delayed because rates are so high,” said Sobool.

The roots of the current problem come from the financial crisis in 2008, when rates were dropped to prop up the economy.

“Then they never came back up, so we had 20 years of ultra-low rates.”

As a result, housing prices and all other real estate, including farmland, hit the stratosphere.

“We saw really strong growth in farmland values because money was cheap. You were wise to invest in an asset where the value of the asset is appreciating higher than what you’re paying in interest rates,” said Sobool.

Then interest rates rose to counter post-pandemic inflation.

By the end of 2023, about 40 per cent of residential mortgages had been renewed at a higher rate. Once that shock moves its way through the system, volatility is expected to settle down. On the other hand, Sobool said most mortgages won’t be renewed at the higher rate until the end of 2026.

“There’s going to be a little pain before we get to this situation where rates are starting to normalize,” he said.

The economy is expected to sputter in Canada. After growth of just 1.1 per cent in 2023, the Bank of Canada is forecasting the economy to grow at just 0.8 per cent in 2024, while FCC predicts just 0.7 per cent growth.

The labour market will remain tight for the near future, said Sobool, at about five percent. That will affect inflation and worker availability.

“We’re seeing the labour market is losing steam, but it’s just taking some time. So labour is still going to be hard to find.”

The fate of the dollar

The Canadian dollar is suffering, Sobool noted. That’s bad news for those importing from the U.S., but for the export-reliant agriculture sectors, it makes Canadian ag products more attractive and worth more when Americans buy them.

It will also impact inflation, however.

“The dollar is going to trend higher throughout the year, but not a whole bunch,” Sobool said.

It may seem counter-intuitive that the dollar can strengthen while the economy is weak, he added, but the dynamic is more a function of U.S. dollar strength, considered a safe-haven currency in troubled times.

Input costs versus commodity prices

Fertilizer and fuel have come off the peak seen a year ago, but they’re coming down slowly, said Sobool. Meanwhile, commodity prices are flagging. Geopolitical considerations will also affect commodity prices and input costs in 2024.

Russia has become a major wheat exporter in recent years, and events there will affect global prices. As well, China looks to increase its oilseed production and become less reliant on imports from other countries.

Both Belarus and Russia are major players in the fertilizer market and affect input costs, Sobool said.

“We’re heading into 2024 with the weakest prices we’ve seen in the last couple of years. Canola is down 38 per cent. Wheat’s down just under 33 per cent.”

FCC does not predict further significant commodity price reductions in the near future.

“For the rest of this year and into next year, prices are going sideways,” said Sobool.

The post Economic outlook marks hazards ahead appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“In the last 12–18 months, we’ve seen some really good performance from both of the railroads, said Quorum Corporation’s Mark Hemmes. “The exception was the last four or five weeks, and that was largely driven by the huge cold spell that came in right after the New Year.”

Manitoba got a touch of that cold spell, but it was especially cold in Saskatchewan and Alberta, where it lasted a full two weeks and temperatures dipped as low as -50 C.

“The railways have a really hard time moving traffic when it comes to cold weather,” said Hemmes.

Hemmes was speaking about the state of the grain shipping industry at the CropConnect conference in Winnipeg on Thursday, Feb. 15.

While that cold snap had a temporary effect on the movement of grain, Hemmes said the railways did a solid job of dealing with it.

“It was a really good recovery,” he said. “We were thinking that it was going to take them a month to get back into shape. But it was maybe two or three weeks, and they were back up to running in pretty good fashion.”

Hemmes said that while the railways have made some improvements in recent years, the smooth sailing this year is largely attributable to a smaller crop.

“It’s a little easier on the railways, I think. That’s been really helpful to them to be able to move things as well as they have, even during that extreme cold weather.

When asked if volumes were a little light because producers were holding back in the hopes that grain prices would improve, Hemmes said he wasn’t seeing any evidence of that.

At the end of December, the railways had about 35 per cent of the crop, which is a little low. But Hemmes attributed that to price increases from both railways between August and October 2023.

“But it wasn’t as big a deal as I thought,” said Hemmes. “Normally, at the end of December, we’d be at about 38 per cent.”

Keep an eye out for our full-grain shipping update in next week’s Co-operator.

The post Grain shipments see smooth sailing on small crop appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Of all household food items that end up in the trash, vegetables represent 30 per cent of total food waste by weight, while fruits come in at 15 per cent, according to anti-food waste website LoveFoodHateWaste.ca.

The site, operated by the National Zero Waste Council, claims that Canadians throw out 1.3 million apples, 2.6 million potatoes and 1.3 million tomatoes every day.

Lovemore Malunga, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientist in Winnipeg, is working on a way to reduce those numbers, and part of the answer might lie inside oat groats.

“We’re working with the fruit growers to see if we can use oat starch as a coating … to coat the fruits,” said Malunga.

His work explores the functional and nutritional properties of pulse crops and cereals, and includes a project that creates a kind of biofilm based on oat starch. The hope is that the coating could extend the shelf life of produce.

Edible starch, like that found in oats, is a moisture barrier, forming an almost waxy coating that keeps fruit from rotting. Instead of fruit lasting one week, “it could potentially last two weeks,” Malunga said.

It could be sprayed on, although baths in which fruit is washed in the oat starch formulation is another option.

The concept is appealing, since oat starch is safe for human consumption and could replace plastic used to preserve fruit and vegetables. However, it is a long way from commercialization.

AAFC scientists in Nova Scotia have also been testing the preservative powers of the oat starch formulation on fruit and berries.

“We are waiting to hear, good or bad,” Malunga said.

“Theoretically, it should work … This is the first formulation. There is still room for improvement.”

Malunga’s research is one project among many that seek new ways to preserve produce and cut food waste — a topic that garners attention for both food security and environmental reasons.

Last year, a group of Spanish food scientists published a literature review on edible coatings.

“The need for food waste reduction, the consumers’ interest in incorporating more fresh products in their diet and the awareness of society about the environment are … why edible coatings are receiving so much interest from the scientific community,” they wrote in a paper published at mdpi.com.

Some companies are already selling coatings that protect fruit and vegetables.

Apeel from California has developed a coating derived from plant oils. The company says it acts like another layer of peel to the fruit or vegetable.

“Our plant-based protection slows water loss and oxidation, the primary causes of spoilage,” says its website.

Greenhouse growers in Ontario started experimenting with Apeel’s technology in 2022 to replace the plastic wrap typically covering English cucumbers.

Dino Di Laudo of Topline Farms in Leamington, Ont., told CTV News that it was testing the coating and shipping Apeel-treated cucumbers to 12 grocery stores in Toronto.

“I’m hopeful that within two or three years that this will be the norm for cucumbers,” he told the news channel at the time.

The post Oat starch for less food waste appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“We’re working proactively on some of these approaches,” said Krista Zuzak, director of crop protection and production with Cereals Canada.

WHY IT MATTERS: Trade impacts from the CFIA’s gene-editing decision are vastly different on either side of the organic-conventional line.

On May 3, federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced updated guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The decision put most gene-edited (GE) seed on the same regulatory level as conventionally bred varieties.

This puts Canada in a similar camp with the U.S., China, Japan, the U.K. and several other countries.

However, not all of Canada’s trading partners are as open to GE foods. The European Union is in the process of clarifying its policy, but now lumps GE crops with traditional GMOs, which are not well accepted there. Organic buyers ban them completely.

The Canadian organic sector is concerned that more GE crops in rotation will increase the risk of organic crops becoming contaminated, according to Tia Loftsgard, executive director of the Canada Organic Trade Association. If the sector is not able to guarantee its products are free of GE content, it could lead to trade breakdowns.

Loftsgard pointed to an incident in 2018 when GM wheat, which is not in commercial cultivation, was found in Alberta. Japan and South Korea temporarily suspended wheat imports from Canada following the discovery.

A similar incident occurred in 2009 when the EU halted trade of Canadian flax after GM material was detected in a load.

“We do flag that, and we do see that that could possibly be an issue for some markets,” said Zuzak.

She said the industry has seen an uptick in questions from foreign buyers about Canada’s policies on gene editing. The tone is mostly curious, with questions largely centred around what approach Canada will take. Buyers want to know what to expect so they can communicate this to customers, she said.

“It’s very much an information gathering stage.”

Cereals Canada wants systems in place that will allow market choice, according to Zuzak.

Some of those systems are already in place, said Krista Thomas, vice-president of trade policy and seed innovation with the Canada Grains Council.

For instance, grain handlers can supply customers with organic or conventional product, GM and non-GM, and many other characteristics. Exporters can keep types of grain separate and ship and receive them according to customer needs.

Grain companies may also be able to use grower contracting to source specific characteristics, including non-GE.

“That’s a concern for all farmers in Canada. All farmers need to know if their seed was developed using gene editing or not so they can pass that information along,” Thomas said.

In a news release, Soy Canada said the industry has “excelled at meeting diverse customer needs” including organic, non-GM, GM and identity-preserved soybeans. It also said that meeting specific needs “remains an important priority for the industry.”

“Our customers know that we excel at providing a diverse range of products,” Soy Canada’s executive director Brian Innes said in a release. “We’re committed to continue providing customers what they want once we commercialize soybeans created using gene editing.”

Transparency moves

The federal government has announced initiatives designed to encourage crop developers to be transparent about their practices. This includes the Canadian Variety Transparency Database and a transparency steering committee.

However, transparency isn’t mandated, and that will be a problem for the organic sector, Loftsgard said.

“Without it being mandatory to report all GE, I think that they’re pretty futile,” she said. “All it takes is one GE-wheat leak, as we’ve already experienced, in order to affect all trade.”

A best management guide developed by Seeds Canada and CropLIfe Canada recommends that developers participate in voluntary transparency mechanisms.

“Each developer will make their own choices when it comes to marketing information. Their choice to specifically market a product as gene edited, especially if their product is not considered novel, will depend on the specific edit and resulting trait,” a Seeds Canada spokesperson said in a statement to the Co-operator.

“Our members support the Canadian Variety Transparency Database and are committed to ensuring it is complete and accurate,” the spokesperson said. “We encourage our members to remain in contact with the grain supply chain and national commodity associations so that our entire sector is aware of what products are entering the market.”

CORRECTION, May 26, 2023: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to the Canada Organic Trade Association under a different name.

The post The trade take on CFIA’s gene-editing decision appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That tweet from a University of Guelph food expert summed up the reaction of many farm groups in the country following the unveiling of the revamped Canada’s Food Guide.

As expected, Health Canada’s new edition of the guide — last revised in 2007 — recommends Canadians eat more protein-rich foods derived from plants, and also urges them to “make water their drink of choice.”

The cover of the guide is particularly striking as the plate suggests the relative proportions of food that Canadians should have in their diet. Half the plate is covered by fruits and vegetables with the section for protein containing three small cubes of beef, three small slices of chicken, and a wedge of hard-boiled egg.

It’s a major shift from previous guides (which debuted in 1942), as the recommended diet also mirrored the economic interests of Canadian agriculture. For the past four decades, the guide has had four food groups — dairy; meat and alternatives; grains; and fruits and vegetables. The new guide reduces that to three: fruits and vegetables; whole grains; and proteins. The latter includes meat and dairy but also plant-based protein such as lentils and tofu (there are two pieces of tofu on the plate on the cover of the guide). Water is recommended “to help reduce the amount of sugars people consume and help protect teeth from frequent exposure to sugar.”

Not surprisingly, the change isn’t sitting well with farm organizations representing the meat and dairy sectors.

“There is abundant research that demonstrates that milk products with various fat content can be a part of (a) healthy diet,” Alberta Milk said in a tweet about the new guide (which was released just as this edition of the paper was going to press).

“Although meat is featured in >Canada’s Food Guide,< we are concerned that Canadians might interpret this new version as a recommendation to reduce meat consumption in favour of plant-based proteins” said Canada Pork chair Rick Bergmann.

Canada Pork took issue with the science behind the guide’s recommendations, saying eating less red meat “could have very serious repercussions” for some people.

“Some Canadians — especially women and older adults — do not consume enough important nutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, the latter only being found in meat,” the council said in a release. “Further reductions in red meat consumption by these individuals may lead to deficiencies affecting mental health, energy levels, and infant birth weight.”

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture took a more neutral stance.

“It is unfortunate that the revised food guide does not specifically promote Canadian agri-food as part of their core recommendations,” it said in a release. “However, the diversity of foods outlined in the food guide are all agri-food products that Canadian farmers grow and produce daily.”

For its part, Health Canada said the guide is based on evidence from “respected health authorities.”

“Although we live in an era of conflicting nutrition messages, the totality of evidence is clear,” the department said.
When it comes to protein, the department said it recommended eating more plant-based versions because they provide more dietary fibre (which lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and type 2 diabetes) and that there are additional health benefits from eating more vegetables, fruit, nuts, and soy protein.

It said it is also recommending people reduce their consumption of processed meats (because they have been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer) and foods that contain mostly saturated fat.

That means eggs “make the cut,” the Egg Farmers of Alberta said.

“It (the guide) recommends to choose protein rich foods and did you know whole egg protein has the highest biological value of protein from any other food — making whole eggs a source of the highest quality protein available,” the group tweeted.

The guide also heads onto new ground by urging Canadians to spend more time in their kitchens and sitting down at the table with friends and family — and less time at the fast-food takeout window or eating highly processed foods.

“When food is prepared and cooked at home, people can reduce the amount of highly processed foods they use, which can help them lower their intake of sodium, sugars, or saturated fat,” Health Canada said.

As well, it promotes “mindful eating.” That includes taking more time to consider what you’re eating, reading food labels more closely, and avoiding “distractions such as eating in front of a screen.”

The post A plateful of advice offered in new national food guide appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA), Grain Growers of Canada (GGC), the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) and the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA) were among the groups welcoming the minister’s promises. Parliament will have to pass legislation to bring them into effect and the groups promised to watch those steps carefully.

Morneau said there would be tax changes to enable businesses to write off the full cost of some types of machinery and equipment in the year of purchase and a $1.1-billion fund to help Canadian exporters find new international markets by expanding the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service. It will also support additional infrastructure to boost port capacity and $800 million will be added to the federal strategic innovation fund during the next five years.

CFA president Ron Bonnett said, “This fiscal update shows that the federal government is taking the right steps to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of Canada’s agricultural sector. This support is pivotal to achieve the target of increasing agricultural exports to $75 billion by 2025 which was set out in the 2017 federal budget.”

Accelerated capital cost allowances will allow Canadian farmers more freedom to invest in their operations, he said. The 100 per cent deductibility on clean energy equipment will provide a direct incentive for further investment in climate change mitigation, he said.

Jeff Nielsen, GGC president, said the government “continues to recognize the important role agriculture plays in the growth of our economy,” noting that agriculture contributes six per cent to Canada’s GDP and committing to increase agricultural exports by 50 per cent between now and 2025.

The depreciation, export diversification and regulatory reform measures announced by Morneau “will help grain farmers succeed at home and around the world by encouraging exports, investment and innovation… and will deliver real results for Canada’s hard-working grain farmers.”

CAFTA president Brian Innes commended Morneau’s pledge “to make Canada the world’s most globally connected economy. Increased support will help exporters take advantage of new trade agreements and access new markets.

“The new Export Diversification Strategy will provide much-needed additional support for Canada’s agri-food exporters to identify and take advantage of the new market opportunities provided by the new trade agreements,” Innes said.

CPMA president Ron Lemaire said the measures announced by Morneau “will bolster the fresh fruit and vegetable industry and increase the industry’s competitiveness in the global marketplace.”

They are “a thoughtful response to many of the competitiveness challenges the fresh produce industry faces,” he said. Regulatory reform and international trade diversification are especially helpful. “We look forward to continuing our work with the government on increasing our industry’s competitiveness.”

CPMA is pleased with the export diversification strategy, additional funding for agri-food market access issues, the creation of an Expert Advisory Committee on Regulatory Competitiveness and the new depreciation incentives.

Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said while the statement contains a number of important measures to address Canada’s competitiveness gap with other countries, more urgently needs to be done.

“In advance of today’s update we have been calling for targeted tax cuts to stimulate investment, concrete measures to reduce the regulatory burden, and accelerated investments in the National Trade Corridors Fund,” he said. CCC hopes the promise of regulatory reform lives up to the billing.

Missing from the statement was a full review of the tax system and a clear, realistic strategy for balancing the federal spending and revenue, he said.

Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said the measures in the economic statement “will partially offset the negative impact on Canada’s economy of recent U.S. tax changes, while creating incentives for Canadian companies to make new job-creating investments.

“However, we all need to recognize that Canada’s competitiveness challenges go much deeper than any single tax measure. We will continue to urge the government to adopt a comprehensive strategy to foster business confidence, attract investment and enable the creation of new, high-value jobs.”

The update also outlined a series of regulatory modernizations, with competitiveness being added as a permanent part of regulatory mandates. The economic strategy table report outlined many regulatory bottlenecks and CFA is relieved to see the government promising to take immediate actions on items such as food labelling, barriers to interprovincial trade, the introduction of general aquaculture regulations and others.

“It is very heartening to see the government is listening to farmers and, more importantly, acting on what it hears. These initiatives are an excellent step towards harnessing the potential of Canadian agriculture,” Bonnett said.

The post Ottawa serves up faster depreciation in fall economic update appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Facing higher levels of poverty and unemployment than the general population, many Indigenous people see the marijuana trade as a valuable source of income.

Canada became the first industrialized nation to legalize recreational cannabis on October 17.

While Indigenous entrepreneurs have already been selling cannabis for years, they say legalization could allow them to build fully legal businesses and tap into a market that spans the whole country.

And that could strengthen communities’ fight for self-governance, said Samantha McGuire, manager of cannabis shop the Organic Green Dispensary in Tyendinaga, an Indigenous Mohawk community about 250 km northeast of Toronto.

“The production and distribution of cannabis is our sovereign Indigenous right,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “It is about self-determination.”

Tyendinaga is at the epicentre of Canada’s burgeoning Indigenous-run cannabis trade. Although it has fewer than 5,000 residents, according to the latest census data from 2016, the Mohawk Territory has more than 30 marijuana stores.

From “Peacemaker 420” to “Smoke on the Water,” most shops are located inside mobile homes parked around the rural community, beside a major highway connecting the cities of Toronto and Montreal.

And the trade is profitable, local businesses say.

The owner of Smoke Signals, a cannabis dispensary company with four locations in Tyendinaga, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he earns between $5,000 and $10,000 per day from cannabis sales.

Canadians spent more than $5 billion on cannabis last year — when it was still illegal — according to government estimates.

Self-determination

What is less clear is what will happen to stores like McGuire’s now that legalization has taken effect.

Canada’s provincial governments, rather than the national authorities, are tasked with deciding who can sell cannabis and under what conditions.

In Ontario, where Tyendinaga is located, recreational cannabis can currently only be sold through a government-owned online portal.

The provincial government aims to allow private outlets to sell cannabis by 2019.

But Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said in August that anyone operating a store like McGuire’s after October 17 will not be able to apply for a licence to run a legal store.

“The government doesn’t want to be doing businesses with dispensaries that have been operating illegally,” she said, although she did not mention what would happen to cannabis stores operating on Indigenous reserves.

Karine Martel, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Canada, the national department in charge of domestic security, did not confirm or deny whether raids on Indigenous cannabis shops would continue after legalization.

“Provincial laws of general application will apply on reserve land unless they conflict with a federal statute” or with bylaws created by local Indigenous councils like the one which governs Tyendinaga, she said in emailed comments.

Tyendinaga has not passed a bylaw backing the dispensaries, nor have local police conducted large-scale raids on the dozens of stores operating openly in the community, according to the website of the reserve’s Indigenous band council.

McGuire and other Indigenous cannabis traders say provincial rules do not apply to them because historic treaties signed between Mohawks and the national government supersede provincial rules.

Indigenous people have sovereignty to decide what happens on their land, said McGuire — and that includes continuing to sell cannabis even after the Oct. 17 deadline.

“As far as self-determination goes, cannabis has been part of our ancestors’ history and it is something we have always had the right to distribute, use, possess,” she said.

The community received formal rights to the land that McGuire’s store sits on from the British following the War of 1812, said Peter Kulchyski, a professor of native studies at the University of Manitoba.

Mohawk warriors and other Indigenous people joined British soldiers in rebuffing an American invasion of territory that would later become part of Canada, he said in an interview.

That history and their “treaty rights to the land” mean the government should not dictate to Indigenous people how they should develop economically, he added.

“Tyendinaga is a particular situation where you are close to an urban centre and you could create a significant amount of employment for the community,” he said.

Cash crop

Indigenous Canadians, who make up about five per cent of Canada’s 36 million people and face more poverty and violence, have fought for generations to gain greater control of the development of the country’s natural resources.

Nearly one-third of Indigenous people living on reserves faced overcrowding at home, according to government data from 2017, far higher than the national average.

Entrepreneurs like McGuire hope the cannabis trade will help spur economic development on land controlled by Indigenous communities and create more retail hubs.

“There are lots of communities where companies want to do this kind of business,” said Rick Colbourne, professor of Indigenous entrepreneurship at the University of Northern British Columbia.

“Some communities are going to see land as a resource that they can leverage to grow cannabis as a cash crop for economic development.”

The post Canada’s Indigenous people fight for rights with new cash crop — cannabis appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.