Western Canada farmland values soar as growers expand

Western Canadian farmland is soaring in value, as farmers expand their lands and look to cash in on high crop prices, a report by real estate organization RE/MAX said Sept. 10. The price of high-end grain-producing land in southern Saskatchewan has jumped 20 per cent on average from last year to a range of $1,200

Farm groups set objectives for fall session of Parliament

With the Canadian Wheat Board battle in the rear-view mirror, this fall’s parliamentary session won’t be as controversial. But long-promised legislation to set standards for railway service levels, drought aid for Ontario and Quebec farmers, and the new Growing Forward deal — expected to make farmers more responsible for their financial well-being — should generate


Harper’s involvement makes pardons partisan, critics charge

It played well with open-market supporters and Conservatives, 
but several academics see it as an abuse of power


Pardons might be justified for some farmers who ran the border to protest the Canadian Wheat Board’s former monopoly, but several university professors say it’s wrong for the prime minister to be conferring them. “The fact that it was done by the prime minister makes it look like a party political stunt and that leaves

Pardons for border runners raise questions

Now that the CWB is changed, Stephen Harper says farmers who broke the law in the 1990s deserve to be pardoned

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to pardon some of the western farmers convicted of contravening Customs Act regulations in the 1990s is raising eyebrows. “Where does that stop?” Bob Roehle, a former CWB employee and member of Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board asked. “In a democracy, do I get to choose which laws I


Prime minister celebrates grain-marketing freedom

The new CWB says it’s ready to compete in an open market and 
buoyed by a good crop, high prices and farmer support

The drama over the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board single desk showed no sign of abating last week as the new era of open grain marketing began. Prime Minister Stephen Harper told several hundred cheering farmers gathered at a farm near Kindersley, Sask. Aug. 1 farmers who ran the border to challenge the board’s

High quality versus high yields

The search is on for a way to allow higher-yielding wheats while protecting Western Canada’s reputation as a premium producer of red spring and amber durum wheat. “All of the sectors affected by variety registration have come together in a very positive spirit to work towards developing something that will address the concerns and preserve


The prime minister honours CWB protesters for fighting unjust law

The following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s remarks while at an event in Kindersley, Sask., Aug. 1 to celebrate the government’s victory in eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk. What a great day this is. It’s a great day for western Canadian farmers — a great day for all who have

You can’t manage what you won’t measure

Sixty-nine years of history came to an end August 1. The single-desk marketing system of the Canadian Wheat Board, which started in 1943, is now officially dead. Few farmers were ever asked about this change. There was no producer vote, no public hearing, no respectable debate in Parliament. There was no cost-benefit analysis. There’s not