man at desk with paperwork

Editorial: Paperwork versus field work

Many readers may find themselves shouting out a hearty “heck, yeah” to this week’s release of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business annual survey of what farmers think of paperwork. In a nutshell, not much, which isn’t surprising. After all, who among us does the happy dance at tax time or when Statistics Canada calls

Doug Chorney

Five years lost as farmers wait for better default protection on grain sales

Leaving feed mills exempt from coverage under existing licensing and bonding leaves farmers vulnerable to losses

In 2009, western Canadian farm groups submitted a report to the Honourable Gerry Ritz, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, outlining options for a program that would provide security to producers when grain buyers defaulted on payments. The main options were fund-based, insurance-based or bond-based programs. It was not that there wasn’t already a form