Trudeau’s Liberal government has implemented a price on carbon to combat climate change, but some lawmakers in his own party have called for changes to the scheme, in particular in Atlantic Canada where a disproportionate number of households use oil to heat their homes.

Trudeau, noting the impact of high inflation, said fighting climate change must be done while supporting all Canadians.

“This is an important moment where we’re adjusting policies so that they have the right outcome,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We are doubling down on our fight against climate change … (while) we are supporting Canadians.”

The pause on the carbon tax on heating oil will begin in 14 days in provinces where the federal fuel charge applies, while the higher rebates for individuals and families in rural Canada will start in April 2024.

The increased rebate will be provided by doubling the rural top-up rate on the federal government’s pollution price rebate, otherwise known as the Climate Action Incentive Payment (CAIP), to 20 per cent from the current 10.

In Saskatchewan, for example, for the 2022 base year, an individual resident gets a baseline annual CAIP credit of $680, plus additional amounts per household for spouses/common-law partners and/or children under age 19. The top-up rate applies on the base amount.

“People who live in rural communities face unique realities, and this measure will help put even more money back in the pockets of families dealing with higher energy costs because they live outside a large city,” the government said in a release.

READ MORE: Carbon tax exemption bill C-234 clears Senate committee

Trudeau also announced measures to incentivize Canadians to install electric heat pumps. The government said switching from oil to heat pumps could save homeowners up to $2,500 a year on energy bills.

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, is aiming to cut emissions 40-45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and a steadily rising carbon price that will hit $170 a tonne by 2030, from $65 a tonne currently, is a key part of their plan.

The opposition Conservatives have vowed to scrap the carbon tax if they win the next election, set to take place by late 2025.

“After plummeting in the polls, a flailing, desperate Trudeau is now flipping and flopping on the carbon tax as I am holding a gigantic axe the tax rally in a Liberal-held Atlantic riding,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre wrote on social media platform X.

Climate and environment groups had a mixed reaction to Trudeau’s announcement.

Climate Action Network welcomed the move to accelerate the heat pump uptake and reduce energy poverty in Atlantic Canada, but others warned temporarily exempting home heating oil from carbon pricing introduced uncertainty.

“It sends the signal to emitters — and investors — that policy can be weakened in the future, diluting the carbon price’s effectiveness in driving the long-term, low-carbon investments required to reduce emissions,” said Dale Beugin, executive vice-president of the Canadian Climate Institute.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil and Nia Williams. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Ford, which has been Canada’s best-selling auto brand since 2009, has stated it plans to stop putting AM radios in non-commercial vehicles by 2024.

The automaker’s decision follows those of companies such as Tesla, Mazda and Volkswagen, which have removed AM receivers from their electric vehicle (EV) lines, citing electromagnetic interference the EV drivetrain can create with the AM signal.

Many rural areas and farming communities are too far from population centres to catch FM radio — making AM the only broadcast media connection for market reports, weather reports and emergency updates.

Representatives from Kubota, John Deere and Stellantis — the parent company of brands such as Chrysler, Jeep and Ram — all said in emailed statements they do not have plans to phase out AM radio in their vehicles.

But even if farming vehicles retain the AM dial, decisions like Ford’s will likely have ripple effects in rural areas.

“There’s a chain of events, of course,” said Darrin Qualman, director of climate crisis policy and action for the National Farmers Union (NFU). “If the automakers phase out the AM in their cars, then it’ll make it more likely that the radio stations will phase out AM broadcasting.

“The way that farmers and rural people are affected isn’t because they end up with the cars that don’t have the AM radios, it’s because the lack of AM radios in cars leads to the shutdown of the AM signals.”

Shifting to newer technology such as internet streaming or satellite radio would not be possible for many farmers, he added.

“Tractors, unlike cars, have a very long lifespan. Farmers keep tractors for 20, 30, 40 years or more, and they are not going to have the latest radio technology.”

Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) president Keith Currie said any new tech would not be able to match AM radio’s universality.

“Can you find certain things? Yes, like sporting events, you can typically find, but not everything’s available yet through satellite radio.”

Currie also said that since “we are a long way away” from effective cellular and 5G coverage in rural areas, the internet is not yet a viable alternative.

Currie said he is an avid AM listener.

“I live in Ontario, so I’m a big Blue Jays fan, so at night, on the tractor in particular, I’ve got the Jays game on.”

‘Need some intervention’

Another area of concern is the potential impact on emergency radio broadcasts.

“In the case of an emergency, (where) we need to communicate across vast regions or provinces all at once, I think people would turn to those AM radio sets,” Qualman said, “if we don’t have the capacity to broadcast over wide areas, it creates a problem.”

Currie said cell coverage would also be an issue when it comes to emergencies, as many would not have a strong enough signal to receive messages.

Qualman said he thinks this issue requires legislative action.

“It can’t just be shaped by the market and profitability drive of the corporate owners of radio stations,” Qualman said. “We probably need some government intervention and regulation to make sure that the AM bands that a lot of people rely on are maintained.”

“Like all things in life, times change, and we have to adapt to it, I just hope we have the resources.”

At least one attempt at such intervention is now underway south of the border.

Bipartisan groups of lawmakers on Wednesday launched legislation in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that would direct that country’s transportation secretary to ensure consumers have access to AM radio in all new vehicles, without paying extra.

The proposed rule would give the secretary a year to set a standard for new motor vehicles in the U.S. to come with AM radio. Until that standard is in place, vehicles sold without AM radio receivers would have to be “explicitly labeled” for buyers.

“There is a clear public safety imperative here,” Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said in a release Wednesday from the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

“Having AM radio available in our cars means we always have access to emergency alerts and key warnings while we are out on the road. Updating transportation should not mean sacrificing access to what can be lifesaving information.”

Markey also noted endorsement for the bill from the U.S. National Association of Broadcasters and National Association of Farm Broadcasters.

“Carmakers shouldn’t tune out AM radio in new vehicles or put it behind a costly digital paywall,” Markey said in his release, saying his bill aims to ensure AM “does not become a relic of the past.”

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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“If we want Canadian agriculture to be more economically and environmentally sustainable, we must break down the barriers for hard-working women in the sector,” said Marie-Claude Bibeau in a panel discussion April 27.

The federal government promised ambitious support and funding for childcare in Canada as part of its 2021 budget. It promised $30 billion to fund, and work with provincial and Indigenous governments to develop, a Canada-wide early-learning and childcare system.

Most details remain to be seen, but the government said it will reduce parents’ fees by 50 per cent, on average, with a goal to reach an average $10-per-day fee by 2026.

Bibeau spoke with MariJo Patiño, secretary and treasurer for Manitoba Women in Agriculture and Food; Miriam Sweetnam, board member with Dairy Farmers of Manitoba; Catherine Kroeker-Klassen, chair of Manitoba Egg Farmers; Sam Connery-Nichol, who co-owns Connery’s Riverdale Farms near Portage la Prairie; and Anastasia Fyk, a Manitoba board member with the National Farmers Union.

“There are few options, especially in rural areas and due to distance, affordability, childcare should also be flexible and offer more options such as part time and drop-off,” said Patiño.

“And at the same time, options for childcare are not enough,” she said. “They need to be a safe place and they need to be well instructed in order to give women the peace of mind to go to work.”

“I need evening hours, and weekend hours, and certain crops like asparagus I’m going 24-7,” said Connery-Nichol. “Then other times I can be home with him and I don’t really need that space.”

“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, women in agriculture already faced difficult challenges balancing responsibilities and expectations tied to their jobs and families,” Bibeau said in a statement on April 21.

“We all know that many women are forced to quit jobs or stop work on the farm because they don’t have childcare support. COVID-19 has exacerbated these pressures and unfairly affected women in Canada and forced many female farmers into these sacrifices,” she said.

Bibeau also told the April 27 panel she was working to see if the temporary foreign worker program could be expanded to include childcare as an eligible farm task. She said this is under consideration, and would make sure women in agriculture were consulted on this.

The NFU said it was pleased to see steps taken toward a universal childcare program, it said in an April 19 statement.

“Life for many rural families has been especially challenging during this pandemic. Many of us work off farm to support our families in addition to farming,” said Coral Sproule, NFU women’s vice-president.

“With children home from school more often, it has meant some of us had to quit off-farm jobs or work a second job from home without childcare.”

The NFU added further support for rural education and rural internet access is also needed.

“While we are pleased to see financial allocations for childcare in today’s budget, we see this as only the first step toward more equitable support for all Canadian families including rural and farm families during this critical time,” said Bess Legault, NFU women’s president.

Childcare researcher Susan Prentice said she walked on air the day the announcement was made, despite this not being Canada’s first attempt at a national childcare plan.

She said she thinks this time the penny has dropped and people realize this is needed.

“I actually do think that it’s going to get done,” Prentice said.

However, she gave a word of caution to Manitobans.

“Manitoba’s stubborn insistence that the market is the way to go really, I think, jeopardizes Manitoba’s ability to participate in this national plan,” Prentice said.

Bibeau acknowledged the program would need to be developed in partnership with provincial governments while speaking to media after the April 27 panel discussion.

She said a combination of wide community support and the federal money on the table would make provincial governments think twice about saying no.

She said a strong commitment within the Liberal government gave her confidence this attempt at nationwide childcare would succeed.

“We had the choice between different major social measures and after, you know, really consulting widely we have decided that this one is the one to make a significant difference in different ways,” she said.

“In the short, medium and long term we strongly believe it’s the best measure we could put in place to help families across Canada while helping the economy as well,” she added.

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Red Deer-Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins introduced his private member’s bill for first reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“Rural Canadians too often don’t feel safe in their own homes. Many have been victimized so often they’ve given up reporting property crime. It is often difficult for people to get affordable insurance if they can get it at all,” Calkins told MPs.

“My constituents are tired of being victims, they’re tired of the revolving door of the justice system, and of crime not being taken seriously. They are losing faith in the justice system, because too often it puts criminals before victims and their families.”

Calkins said his Bill C-289 would amend the Criminal Code to add aggravating circumstances for sentencing.

If passed, it would allow sentencing to include “evidence that an offence was directed at property or persons that were vulnerable because of their remoteness from emergency services and, for the purposes of some offences, the fact that a person carried, used or threatened to use a weapon or an imitation of a weapon.”

Calkins’ proposed law would also require courts to “consider the reasons for detaining the person” prior to determining how much credit an offender should receive for time spent in custody prior to sentencing.

Private members’ bills such as C-289 rarely become law in Canada but are believed to have better chances for passage during periods of minority government such as in the current Liberal-led Commons.

Between 2018 and 2019 a parliamentary committee studied the issue of rural crime in Canada. Produced by MPs from each of the country’s major parties, it found crime in rural areas was a “growing concern.”

The majority of witnesses who participated in that study were from Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Because policing is primarily a responsibility of provincial governments, MPs recommended provinces increase investments in policing and “innovative solutions” such as emergency dispatch centres.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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The province on Tuesday announced the two-year registered veterinary technologist program at Saskatchewan Polytechnic will offer a distance delivery option, starting this fall, for vet techs to train in rural and remote areas.

Eight students will be accepted for the fall intake on the new option, whereas the vet tech diploma program usually accepts 26 first-year students per year at the school’s Saskatoon campus.

Participants in the remote program would “begin their studies remotely and complete the program at a partnering clinical practice with local veterinarians,” the province said.

Students in the virtual program would have to complete the program out of a rural partnering clinic — specifically, a mixed animal clinic, Saskatchewan Polytechnic said.

The advanced education ministry will put up $687,000 for development and operating costs for the new program in 2021-22, the province said Tuesday.

Further sweetening the offer, the province on Tuesday also announced a loan forgiveness program for new graduates who practice in rural or remote areas of the province.

Under that plan, veterinarians and veterinary technologists who work in rural and remote communities for up to five years will have up to $20,000 of their Saskatchewan Student Loans forgiven, the province said.

The province noted Tuesday that three of the 20 seats it funds at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) at the University of Saskatchewan will prioritize admission of students who are “more likely to work in a large animal and/or rural mixed animal practice.”

The remote learning and loan forgiveness programs are “important to addressing a labour market shortage in rural Saskatchewan,” Advanced Education Minister Gene Makowsky said in Tuesday’s release.

The Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, for one, “has been talking about the challenge of diminished rural veterinary services for years,” association chair Arnold Balicki said in the province’s release.

The association is involved in a preceptorship partnership with Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association, he noted, to help third-year students try out practices in rural Saskatchewan.

The province’s latest steps, Balicki said, “are very welcome in ensuring cattle producers have access to veterinary services across Saskatchewan.”

“The provincial government’s move to target three rural-oriented seats will help encourage even more of our veterinary graduates to choose agriculture-focused veterinary careers,” WCVM interim dean Dr. Gillian Muir said in the same release.

A shortage of veterinarians and vet techs in rural areas hasn’t gone unnoticed in neighbouring Alberta either, where the sector is considering more ways to use vet techs in rural practices, and seeking out internationally-trained vets. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph hosted a virtual panel in May to discuss COVID-19’s social impacts, in which researchers from a variety of fields reviewed both the negative and positive takeaways so far.

Jacqui Empson Laporte works with rural communities in her role with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and also volunteers with Victim Services in Huron County, Ont. where she lives.

“In both roles, I’m seeing the stress in farmers and their families, caused by disruptions by the supply chains or even the threat of supply chain disruptions,” she said, noting market uncertainty as small businesses in small towns are trying to adapt to new consumer needs.

Victim Services in her community is small and largely volunteer-driven — and under pressure from the pandemic.

“When our volunteer base is undergoing stress at the scale COVID is pushing on our communities, it really starts to destabilize our establishments,” she said.

It increases the burden on staff, she said, and requires narrowing the scope of calls to which they respond to primarily fatalities and violence, because those incidents are likely to cause the biggest ripples in a community.

“It’s really hard to reach out for help when your stuck in your home in the same conditions that are causing the crisis, so if there is a challenge of addiction or domestic violence or mental health, people are not only isolated by distance in rural Ontario but isolated because of the travel restrictions.”

More tele-counselling opportunities are needed and could help rural communities, she said, but those opportunities are only available where there’s reliable internet service.

Helen Hambly Odame, an associate professor at the University of Guelph who focuses her research on connectivity of rural areas, said the pandemic shows “how essential broadband has become for every single Canadian, urban and rural.”

A “digital divide” that has made it difficult for some rural communities to adapt to changes resulting from the pandemic, she said, as those lacking connectivity are experiencing more isolation from society and the economy.

“We can see how essential connectivity is,” she said, adding later the internet is a current challenge but also a source of great opportunity in the future. “Let’s look at the future as one of opportunity through connectivity.”

She is also hopeful some workplaces recognize employees can successfully work from home and that “some of those workers choose to work from home in rural Ontario.” That, in turn, could become an economic driver for rural communities, she said.

Ryan Gibson, a University of Guelph associate professor who focuses on rural planning and development, told the panel the ability of people in rural communities to volunteer their time has been compromised because of COVID-19.

Many non-profits have had to rethink how they deliver services, he added.

Volunteerism has been “a really key feature” and part of the fabric of rural communities, he said, and while there are typically ebbs and flows, those communities right now ” are challenged in how they respond during the COVID-19 crisis.”

He singled out support for newcomers in rural communities.

“This pandemic has caused a disruption in terms of the supports for the newcomers, it’s challenged the ability to tap into that social fabric, to be able to participate and volunteer, to have your kids take part in extracurricular activities,” he said.

Abdul-Rahim Abdulai, a PhD student at the University of Guelph, echoed that sentiment.

“Most newcomers, like myself, can find a community in a community,” he said, adding it’s difficult to settle in without that support network. “Just moving into a new area by yourself can be very challenging, of course.”

Post-pandemic, “we need to start thinking why our responses to COVID-19 need to look different in different places,” Gibson said, because urban strategies may not be the best response for rural areas.

“One of the really important things we have to think about as we move forward is how to build place-based strategies, how do we build on the assets that are currently in our communities, within the people who live there, and how can we use those assets to meet our local priorities.”

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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The new economic development office became the latest promise on the PC campaign trail Aug. 29, during a media event in Brandon.

“The office itself is not designed to just serve Brandon’s needs, it’s designed to serve all of Manitoba’s needs and certainly, specifically, to help focus attention on helping develop job creation projects in rural Manitoba and to help avoid overlap,” PC leader Brian Pallister said.

“There’s been a lot of that in the past,” he added, citing the typical jostling and local tax incentives normally seen between areas when a company comes to Manitoba looking to set up shop.

“We want to get away from that,” he said. “Manitoba has some growing advantages over our competitors and we want to make sure that we’re not stepping all over each other, that we’re going after more opportunities, not fewer.”

The office would help match business opportunities with suitable areas, according to Pallister.

A board of directors will oversee the office and will help align it with any economic development organizations communities already have, a release from the Progressive Conservatives said.

The office would be modelled on feedback from the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) and the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce. Both groups consulted with their stakeholders and advised the province during Pallister’s first term in office.

“There’s a lot more work yet to do in terms of developing what the agency would look like, how it’s going to be staffed,” Association of Manitoba Municipalities executive director Joe Masi said, in response to the announcement.

The AMM outlined a patchwork of rural economic development efforts during its talks with the province. Masi says he has seen frustration from entrepreneurs wanting to open businesses in Manitoba, but unclear on how to go about it.

“There needed to be an agency that could sort of pull together all the programs, kind of a one-stop shopping that would bring some coherent strategy to economic development,” Masi said.

That role would range from potential business owners needing guidance in rural Manitoba to municipalities looking to develop industry to helping match incoming companies with well-suited areas for their business, he added.

At the other end, he said, communities had to be poised to take advantage of those opportunities when they came along.

The AMM and organizations like EDAM (the Economic Developers Association of Manitoba) have introduced a new certification program and training modules to help address that issue. The program includes material on setting up a business feasibility study and taking the measure of the labour and infrastructure available in a given area.

The promised office does not have to host all the rural economic development initiatives, he added, “but they will certainly be the connector to get people through the red tape of what they need.”

Rural development has been a long-standing issue and the AMM has passed on its priorities, including economic development, to all parties in the upcoming election, he also noted.

Finer details of the project have yet to emerge.

Pallister could not say how much the office would cost to set up, where it would be located in Brandon or what staffing would look like, saying only that those details would depend on recommendations from the AMM and Manitoba Chamber of Commerce.

Pallister also acknowledged rural concerns with urban drain, a common complaint in areas watching their populations decrease in favour of urban areas. Certain business will be better suited for certain areas, he said, while the office’s role will be to find synergies.

“It’s making sure that we match the opportunity with the capital so that it can come and be put at risk in the right location to generate the maximum benefits to the company — obviously, that has to happen first — but also the ancillary benefits to us in terms of job creation, growing communities, improving services,” he said.

Private investment has been a repeat talking point for Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservatives, both during the election and their term in government. The party recently released a target of 40,000 new private sector jobs in its second term if re-elected.

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“The $350-million-a-year provincial spending (on) infrastructure does not come close to dealing with the $11-billion infrastructure deficit our province is faced with,” KAP president Bill Campbell told reporters at a July 2 press conference.

On August 16, the Progressive Conservative party promised that if elected, it would increase the provincial highways program to $400 million from the current $350 million, according to a news release. This would include dedicated funds for infrastructure projects.

“It will ensure that, in addition to maintenance of the highways used every day by agricultural producers to get their products to market,” said Blaine Pederson, PC candidate for Midland.

He added that this would help advance value-added processing projects like the Roquette pea-processing plant near Portage la Prairie.

On Aug. 21, the NDP promised $6.64 billion in infrastructure spending if it were elected.

“This investment would be spread out across the province so that all families and businesses can benefit,” a campaign spokesperson told the Co-operator.

“We need to be sure that rural infrastructure is part of the strategy,” Campbell told the Co-operator.

He said that the focus of agriculture is shifting from export to value-added processing. These industries will require around-the-clock supply all year long, said Campbell.

“We need to make sure the roads allow us to do that,” he said. This needs to include roads that are reliable during spring breakup, and bridges that can accommodate semi-trucks and trailers.

Campbell, who farms south of Brandon, said that in his area there are roads he refuses to travel.

“It just beats my truck up,” he said, adding this limits his access to market.

Better roads would allow more efficient movement of products, said Campbell. This would affect prices, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Campbell said that so far he’s been disappointed with the parties’ level of engagement on agricultural issues.

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The House of Commons’ standing committee on industry, science and technology, chaired by Vancouver area Liberal MP Dan Ruimy, on Tuesday released its report and recommendations for meeting federal targets on rural broadband connectivity.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 2016 declared broadband internet to be an “essential service” in Canada and set minimal performance standards of 50-megabit per second download and 10 Mbps upload, working with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) to fund broadband deployment in rural and remote areas.

However, the committee wrote, evidence it received from various stakeholders shows the digital divide to still be “prominent” in Canada and the CRTC targets “may not be appropriate to all rural and remote areas.”

Licensed incumbents in the broadband sector “tend to only invest in high-density areas that are more economically profitable,” the committee wrote, but if Ottawa were to “adapt” its regulatory framework, particularly on spectrum and network management, “small providers, non-profit providers or non-incumbent providers” could deploy rural broadband in “an economically profitable manner.”

The government also needs to “consider ways to increase the accessibility of funding programs for small providers, non-profit providers and non-incumbent providers, and consider the spectrum allocation process for the purpose of broadband deployment.”

Ottawa also needs to take steps, possibly through legislation in tandem with the provinces, for such providers to be able to accessing “existing infrastructures for the purpose of deploying broadband access,” such as granting easements or servitudes, “especially in regards to utility poles.”

The government also needs to consider the spectrum allocation process, focusing on the “scope of licences, pricing and effective use of allocated spectrum, including ensuring that small providers, non-profit providers, and non-incumbent providers have reasonable access to spectrum for broadband deployment.”

The committee also urged the government to “consider new ways of collecting service and performance data in addition to the speed of internet services, including, but not limited to, adding new indicators, using local knowledge.”

The CRTC, the committee said, should also consider not only broadband speed, but other indicators in its targets, such as “standards of parity between urban and rural centers, network performance, purchased consumer packages, latency and redundancy.”

(“Latency” refers to the time it takes for a given signal to get from a transmitter to a receiver, usually measured in milliseconds.)

The CRTC should also consider “regularly reviewing” its target broadband speeds to make sure they “remain relevant with technological development and international standards.”

Some witnesses during the committee’s hearings on the matter cautioned that the CRTC will have to “regularly update” its broadband speed targets “to keep up with technological change.”

Corroborating those witnesses, the committee said, is “the fact that actual broadband speeds in Canada substantially lag behind many countries that invest more in digital infrastructure.”

A monitoring report, the committee said, shows 99 per cent of Canadians living in rural areas have some form of internet access, including wireless, but to speeds between 1.5 and 4.9 Mbps — and only 42 per cent have access to speeds between 30 and 49.9 Mbps.

“Thus, while most Canadian communities do have Internet coverage, in many rural communities, the available speeds are so low that they only allow for a limited number of uses.” — AGCanada.com Network

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