Gerry Byrne, the Liberal MHA for Corner Brook since 2015 and the province’s minister of fisheries and land resources since 2017, held his riding on Thursday against Progressive Conservative challenger Tom Stewart by a spread of 754 votes.

Byrne, a former economic development officer, was a federal Liberal MP for 19 years before entering provincial politics. In Premier Dwight Ball’s cabinet Byrne had previously served as minister for advanced education and skills.

Jim Lester, who became the Tory MHA for Mount Pearl North in a byelection in 2017, kept his seat from Liberal challenger Nicole Kieley by a margin of 711 votes.

Lester, a Mount Pearl area farmer, was the Tories’ critic for lands and wildlife heading into the election, handling the agrifoods, forestry and Crown lands files, and critic for the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation.

Premier Dwight Ball’s Liberals lost 10 seats in Thursday’s election, ending the evening with 20, just one short of majority government status.

Ches Crosbie’s Tories held official opposition status with 15 seats, gaining seven, followed by Alison Coffin’s New Democrats with three seats, gaining one. Two independents, both former Liberals, hold the remaining seats in the House of Assembly.

Local media quoted Crosbie on Thursday night as saying he wouldn’t concede to the Liberals and calling for a coalition with the five other opposition MHAs.

A part of what’s now the fisheries and land resources department since 2017, the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency was set up in 2007 under the former natural resources department, then spun off to fisheries department oversight in 2015.

The Corner Brook-based agency’s Agrifoods Development Branch is responsible for promoting development, expansion and diversification of the primary and value-added agriculture and agrifoods sectors in the province, which today gross annual sales of about $500 million. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Newfoundland’s ag minister, critic returned in election appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Dignitaries including Premier Dwight Ball and Christopher Mitchelmore, the minister responsible for the provincial Forestry and Agrifoods Agency, attended the seeding Friday near Pasadena, about 30 km east of Corner Brook.

Agency researchers and extension staff seeded 30 acres as a test project at their Pynn’s Brook research station and expect to harvest their crop in late August and/or early September.

According to provincial research specialist Vanessa Kavanagh, the test acres are planted to an InVigor variety, L140P, with L135C as a comparison. L140P is billed as suitable for all growing zones in Canada, while L135C is billed as suitable for growing zones in Quebec that have “confirmed clubroot presence.”

Canola, the agency said, has been grown in all Canadian provinces with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador. A few thousand acres have previously been seeded in other provinces in Atlantic Canada.

“If our ongoing research into canola production proves successful, then it could very well become an important crop for our province,” Ball said in a release.

The agency, now an arm of the Department of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development, said the success of its cereal grain program has so far helped identify “exciting opportunities” which are now part of a crop rotation system on the island portion of the province.

Grain and forage research so far “has led to a decrease in the cost of production as well as an increase in milk production for dairy farmers,” Mitchelmore said in the same release.

“Canola has the potential to become a component of livestock feed and is the next logical step for research in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

“The province’s grain research program has been a game changer for the agriculture sector,” Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture president Melvin Rideout said in the province’s release.

“As a commercial farmer, I see firsthand the importance of this research to our industry and canola can definitely be the next positive step for our province.”

Annual crops, such as forage, soybeans and canola “have the potential to transform the feed and food industry in ways that were not possible five years ago,” the agency said.

Agency staff cultivate and evaluate new crops, such as grains, soybeans, wine grapes, partridgeberries, cranberries and blueberries at Pynn’s Brook. Sites at St. John’s and Glenwood are dedicated to potato research. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Newfoundland’s first canola field seeded appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Finance Minister Cathy Bennett on Thursday mapped out an overall $8.48 billion provincial budget for 2016-17, with an expected deficit of $1.8 billion and a list of “measures to reduce spending.”

For the province’s ag sector — where public program spending is overseen by the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency, an arm of the fisheries and aquaculture ministry — those cuts will include the elimination of the Agriculture and Agrifoods Development Fund (AADF).

The AADF was set up in the 2006 budget, during Danny Williams’ Progressive Conservative administration, “to support large-scale agriculture and agrifoods projects throughout our province” in either primary or secondary processing.

The fund was to put priority on support for projects that “enhance competitive capability, support commercialization, expand market opportunities and create economic growth and employment in the agriculture and agrifoods industry.”

Ending the AADF, the province said Thursday, is a reflection of “low uptake for services (and/or) low demand for programming.”

Bennett’s budget calls for the AADF to be eliminated and its funding phased out over four years. The fund, which had been budgeted for $4 million in its first year, had $2.55 million earmarked for 2015-16.

Wrapping up the AADF is expected to save the province $1.05 million in 2016-17 and up to $2.55 million per year once the phase-out is complete, the province said.

The Forestry and Agrifoods Agency, which was budgeted for $62.65 million in 2015-16, will see $4.44 million in “line-by-line” cuts and “other operational savings” in 2016-17. The agency cuts planned Thursday are expected to save $4.065 million per year in future budgets.

New spending for the ag sector in Bennett’s budget includes $60,000 to hire a “funding co-ordinator” for the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture.

The budget also commits the province to develop a new “food security and agriculture growth strategy.”

Pesticide vendors and applicators will also see the fees hiked for their five-year licenses, starting June 1, including commercial pesticide operators (to $750, up from $500), commercial pesticide vendors (to $375, up from $250) and domestic pesticide vendors ($250, previously free).

Among other tax hikes, the harmonized sales tax (HST) will rise to 15 per cent, up from 13, effective July 1, and gasoline and diesel taxes will rise 16.5 and five cents per litre respectively, effective June 2. The gasoline tax hike was described as temporary and subject to review ahead of the province’s supplemental budget this fall.

Also, a new rebate of 10 cents per litre will be provided on gasoline used in the Labrador border zones (Labrador West, Southern Labrador) effective June 2.

Among income taxes, personal income tax rates will rise effective July 1; the general corporate income tax rate is 15 per cent, up one per cent, retroactive to Jan. 1; and a “temporary deficit reduction levy” based on taxable income, will be imposed effective July 1. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Newfoundland, in cost-cutting mode, scraps agrifood fund appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Oversight for the agency, first set up in 2007 by then-natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale, had been moved in March from the natural resources department to the fisheries and aquaculture department.

However, incoming Premier Dwight Ball on Monday turned the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency file over to Christopher Mitchelmore, his new minister for business, tourism, culture and rural development.

Ball on Nov. 30 led the provincial Liberals to defeat Paul Davis’ governing Tories, by a count of 31 seats to seven, with two seats going to the provincial New Democrats.

Mitchelmore, the MHA for St. Barbe-L’anse aux Meadows, was first elected as a rookie New Democrat in 2011 but crossed to the opposition Liberals in February last year. He then became the Liberals’ critic for environment and conservation, forestry and the Office of Public Engagement.

Originally from the fishing village of Green Island Cove, Mitchelmore has a commerce degree and worked as a client services officer and youth ventures co-ordinator with the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Nortip before entering provincial politics. He also previously worked for the provincial innovation, business and rural development department. — AGCanada.com Network

The post N.L. agrifoods file moves to new minister appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Premier Paul Davis on Thursday appointed provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Vaughn Granter to added responsibility for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency.

The agency, headquartered in Corner Brook, was set up in 2007 by then-natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale and has until now been under the Natural Resources department’s oversight.

However, a spokesperson for the premier’s office confirmed Friday by email that the agency’s management will now move under the purview of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

The agency’s role is to develop policy and programs and provide “support functions” to the agriculture, agrifood and forestry industries with an eye on “well-planned, sustainable growth and development and associated economic and employment opportunities.”

Such programs include the federal/provincial AgriInsurance plan, Environmental Farm Planning and the Agriculture and Agrifoods Development Fund, among others.

The agency also oversees livestock veterinary services, lab analyses for animal diagnostics and food safety, food quality, animal disease monitoring, and control of “heritage animals.”

The agency’s offices also handle licensing and permitting relating to protecting livestock from predators; big game distribution, export and transport; destruction of “problem animals;” and timber cutting, exports and sawmilling, as well as grants for groups such as 4-H and the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture.

Combining agriculture and fisheries under the same minister’s oversight is not new at the provincial level in Canada. Quebec and New Brunswick today operate joint agriculture and fisheries ministries, while in British Columbia, commercial fishery and aquaculture programs are overseen by the ag ministry. — AGCanada.com Network

The post N.L. ag department moving to fisheries oversight appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Vaughn Granter, the MHA for Humber West since 2011 and minister for fisheries and aquaculture since last September, was appointed Thursday to an extra role as minister responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency.

For Premier Paul Davis, who won last September’s race to replace Tom Marshall as Tory leader, the appointment marks a departure for the ag and forestry agency’s oversight.

The Forestry and Agrifoods Agency was set up in 2007 under the umbrella of the provincial Natural Resources department — hence its cabinet leadership, until now, has rested with the minister for natural resources.

Derrick Dalley, MHA for the Isles of Notre Dame and natural resources minister since 2013, kept that portfolio Thursday in the new cabinet, which Davis has pared down to 13 ministers.

The province hasn’t yet said whether the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency’s administration would also go to Granter’s fisheries department.

Granter was a high school principal in Corner Brook before entering provincial politics. His experience with the agriculture file includes a stint as parliamentary secretary responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency from 2012 to 2014. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Newfoundland names new agriculture minister appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.