“Do you have to contribute up to 85?” – LAURENT PELLERIN, CFA Farmers, who have traditionally fallen outside work benefits programs, may now qualify for employment insurance under new federal legislation. The proposed law would extend benefits, such as employment insurance, to the 2.6 million Canadians, including agricultural producers, who are self-employed. Self-employed people could
Tag Archives National Farmers Union
EI Extended To Self-Employed, Including Farmers
Young Farmers On The Table
The federal government will be meeting with farmers, agriculture students and academics from across the country in coming weeks to discuss the key challenges facing young farmers and the future of agriculture through round-table discussions with Minister of National Revenue and Minister of State (Agriculture) Jean-Pierre Blackburn. “I believe Canada’s young and future farmers have
Monsanto Ponders GM Wheat For Canada
Monsanto’s approach to commercializing genetically modified (GM) wheat in Canada will be guided by Canada’s wheat industry, says Monsanto Canada spokesperson Trish Jordan. That is if Monsanto decides to develop GM wheat for the Canadian market. “Right now… we simply don’t know,” Jordan told a luncheon in Winnipeg Oct. 28 hosted by the Manitoba Farm
Stewart Wells Not Running For NFU President
“I think what a lot of people have come to understand is that they can count on the NFU to watch farmers’ bottom lines.” – STEWART WELLS The National Farmers Union (NFU) is like Cassandra of Greek mythology – it predicts the future, but nobody believes it, according to Stewart Wells, who after eight years
CFIA Confusing Millers With Fusarium Inspections
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is sowing confusion and uncertainty among Canadian millers with increased inspections of its plants and products for evidence of fusarium contamination, the Commons agriculture committee has heard. Derek Jamieson, vice-president of the P&H Milling Group, told the MPs the agency has stepped up its inspections “without any prior consultation or
CGC Hasn’t Found Any GM Flax In Pipeline — Yet – for Oct. 8, 2009
If there’s CDC Triffid or any other genetically modified (GM) flax in Canada’s grain pipeline the Canadian Grain Commission has yet to find it. “I don’t know how many samples they have run,” Flax Council of Canada president Barry Hall said in an interview Oct. 2. “They (CGC) have been working away diligently and they
Rail Service Review Enters Next Phase
“Either we have adequate competition or, where we don’t have adequate competition… we need effective legislation to simulate this balance.” – WADE SOBKOWICH Farm groups, grain companies and railway shippers are pleased a federal government review of railway service has taken another step forward. Rob Merrifield, minister of state for transport announced Sept. 23 the
CdC Triffid Flax Scare Threatens Access To No. 1 EU Market
Like a movie monster that refuses to die, CDC Triffid, a genetically modified (GM) Canadian flax deregistered in 2001, has surfaced in Germany, European Union (EU) officials believe. And flax prices have plummeted just as farmers feared they might when they lobbied to have the variety voluntarily pulled from the market. Although the Canadian Food
Ottawa Responds To Producer Car Shippers
“If you don’t have sidings, you effectively sterilize the right to load producer cars.” – terry boehm The Canadian National Railway (CN) should work with farmers before abandoning sidings used to load producer cars, says Rob Merrifield, Minister of state for transport. “The minister is disappointed that CN is only using the bare minimum of
CWB On WTO Block
The upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, scheduled for Geneva this week, are targeting the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) single desk, warns the National Farmers Union (NFU). The WTO negotiations are expected to be based on a draft text that would eliminate western Canadian farmers’ single-desk marketing system for wheat and barley by 2013. Under
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