Comment: Delay to federal-provincial meetings disappointing but necessary

There were never many reasons to be optimistic federal and provincial governments would find a short-term solution to long-held concerns over Canada’s business risk management (BRM) programs. Another delay to a meeting of federal and provincial agriculture ministers to discuss the issue shouldn’t change this. Originally scheduled to happen in July, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted

Editor’s Take: Precedents and partisanship

[UPDATED: Oct. 1, 2020] Manitoba’s Municipal Board has, for the first time, overruled an RM council decision regarding a development application. If the fact that a politically appointed board can override the decisions of a duly elected local council isn’t raising eyebrows, it should. We only have to look south at what has taken place


Comment: Wait to see green economic restart before criticizing

It makes little sense to criticize a plan before any details are available. What Canada’s new finance minister means when she speaks of a green restart to the economy will largely remain a mystery until the Sept. 23 throne speech – but government has signalled the post-pandemic economy will be heavily influenced by climate change.

China’s near-insatiable appetite for canola won’t be met with domestic production.

Political posturing can affect grain prices

China is still buying Canadian canola through the various back doors it’s found to exploit

When you cut through the politics and posturing, China still needs some of what Canada is selling. “They are repopulating their hog herd so they need feed,” Darren Bond, a farm enterprise management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development, told the CropTalk Webinar Sept. 16. “They have developed a taste for canola oil. At


Comment: ‘How much evidence do you need to vaporize a zombie?’

Farm & Food File: U.S. ag trade policy has a ‘zombie idea’ infestation

While “zombie ideas” isn’t a phrase you often see in farm publications, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has popularized it to describe a uniquely American political condition. Zombie ideas, the Nobel Prize-winning economist explained in a 2018 column, are,” ideas that should have died long ago, yet still keep shambling along, eating politicians’ brains.”

Comment: Time to improve conditions for foreign workers

Temporary foreign worker programming earneda hot seat this year due to workers falling ill with COVID-19

Now is the time for the Canadian government to overhaul the country’s foreign worker program. It is the right thing to do and will benefit Canadian agriculture. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many of the shortcomings of the current program, which sees thousands of people come to Canada each year to work on farms across


Feds closely watching provincial changes to trespassing laws

Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan have tightened laws on either access to private rural land or livestock transport, and Manitoba may well be following suit

The federal government is not looking at ways to boost trespassing legislation being passed in some provinces, according to Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau. Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta have taken steps to bolster protections for livestock and producers against trespassers and activists following high-profile events, and Manitoba is believed to be soon following

Letters: Time for new priorities

In response to the Aug. 31 story in the Manitoba Co-operator, “Municipal Board considering benchmark ruling.” Very often we hear the outcry for economic development and resurrection of employment with no concerns whatsoever for water sources, environment and a quality of living. Only a degree of risk is sometimes mentioned. Without water, there is no


Erin O’Toole.

Ag groups welcome O’Toole to new role

Erin O’Toole has won the leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada,so what does that mean for ag?

Agricultural groups say they are eager to start working with the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Erin O’Toole’s Aug. 24 victory means a new face for producers to lobby on the issues important to them. A new name at the head of the Conservative Party of Canada means the ag sector

Letters: Quarry fight reveals undermining of democracy

In response to letters by Jon Crowson and Ruth Pryzner in the Aug. 6 Manitoba Co-operator: Democracy — It was paid for by the blood and casualties of veterans and those who paid the supreme sacrifice, who now lie in graves in distant lands, far from their loved ones, family and homeland. I am a