Provincial Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne on Thursday announced the passage of Bill 28, which amends legislation governing organization of farming activities and the accreditation of UPA.

The bill allows the UPA to launch a review of its funding structure and begin consultations with farmers on new regulations that would change how farms are categorized and represented — and, in turn, the annual UPA dues those farms pay, the province said.

Said new regulations would then be submitted to the Regie des marches agricoles et alimentaires du Quebec — the province’s marketing regulator for farm production — for its approval.

EN FRANÇAIS: Plus d’équité entre les producteurs agricoles et l’UPA

The province’s current Agricultural Producers Act allows only for flat-rate annual fees for UPA membership, at either a fixed single or double rate depending on a farm business’ legal structure.

The bill is meant to give UPA greater flexibility in setting farms’ annual dues through parameters such as a farm’s volume of production or its acres under cultivation as well as the size of the farm’s operating company.

Such a move, the province said, will result in “greater equity” given the diversity in farm businesses in all four corners of Quebec.

“It will be possible from now on to develop a more equitable formula, as producers have demanded for several years,” UPA president Martin Caron said in the association’s release Thursday, thanking Lamontagne and politicians from multiple parties for both the quality and speed of the discussions leading up to the bill’s passage.

More flexible and equitable contributions to UPA in turn will encourage new small farms and start-up farm businesses, Lamontagne said in the province’s separate release, noting the bill meets a 2022 election campaign promise by the governing Coalition avenir (CAQ).

The bill applies to all 42,000 UPA-represented farmers in the province and to related farming and ag industry stakeholder organizations, the province said.

UPA noted the bill will also allow those other associations more flexibility in funding their operations. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Legislation allows Quebec’s UPA to rework funding formula appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Quebec media quoting dairy farmer Pierre Lapointe, the animals’ owner, have said the cattle were spooked by a storm in July when they broke out of their enclosure on his farm at St-Barnabe, about 35 km west of Trois-Rivieres.

The animals have since roamed the neighbouring municipality of St-Severe, where they’ve been seen foraging for food in nearby wooded areas. They’re also believed to have been trampling and grazing on local corn and soybean fields, causing thousands of dollars in crop damage, as well as helping themselves to baled hay in the area.

Quebec media last week reported on the municipality’s efforts to round up the cattle, at one point enlisting the help of cowboys gathered for an event at St-Tite, about 60 km northeast of St-Severe, but the cattle again escaped capture.

The provincial agriculture ministry (MAPAQ) on Saturday announced it had dispatched a team to the area to work with the municipality and the regional UPA arm on co-ordinating a plan to recover the now-feral cattle without spooking them further.

The Mauricie UPA, in a separate release Monday, said the new “long-term” plan involves using portable feeders to attract the animals, but teams will wait at least a few days for the cattle to adapt to the new routine before moving in to round them up.

Noting recent news coverage of the rogue cattle, UPA said a single co-ordinated and concerted approach is needed to avoid any “multiplication” of efforts by local residents and farmers.

MAPAQ on Saturday said several elements must be considered, such as ensuring the well-being of the animals as well as the safety of the public and motorists, in encouraging the cattle to move to a single mustering area. The ministry described the situation as “exceptional,” adding it could require even further action.

Lapointe, quoted Monday by UPA’s newspaper La terre de chez nous, said there have been a couple of collisions reported in the area in recent weeks involving cattle on the road, but no people have yet been seriously injured.

Ensuring the safety of the animals and public means locating the feeders at a site where the animals are least likely to wander onto public roads, UPA said.

Meanwhile, the ministry has asked the general public not to approach the animals, as such activity could again frighten the cattle and drive them further afield.

Once captured, UPA said, the cattle will be returned to their home farm, where specialists will work to ensure they’re made comfortable. Until then, the organization said, the key word is “patience.”

UPA Mauricie president Martin Marcouiller, in Monday’s release, thanked area farmers for their “solidarity and generosity” in the current recovery effort. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Quebec ag ministry, UPA organize to round up rogue dairy herd appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

UPA, in a release last Thursday, said it’s working with a cybersecurity firm to analyze the nature and scope of the attack, as well as any possible solutions to securely restore its affected systems.

UPA oversees 130 different unions of producers organized by commodity within 25 specialized affiliated groups, and represents the province’s 42,000-odd farmers and forestry producers regionally through 90 locals within 12 regional federations.

The organization said the Aug. 7 attack affected UPA servers, files and relevant computer applications — and also affects “several” of those UPA-affiliated commodity-specific and region-specific bodies.

Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts a targeted computer system’s files, rendering them unusable, or removes a system’s sensitive data. A ransom, usually payable in cryptocurrency, is then demanded of the system’s owner, in exchange for a decryption key or the missing data.

UPA didn’t say in Thursday’s release whether it had paid, or has been asked to pay, any ransom. It said measures were taken when the incident was discovered, so as to limit the attack’s reach.

UPA added that it won’t release further details publicly, so as to keep its further investigation confidential and running smoothly.

It would only say the farm-level activities of agricultural businesses “are not compromised” by the attack — and that “all actions” required to protect the interests of the UPA, its members, its staff and its affiliate organizations are being considered.

According to Dr. Janos Botschner of the Guelph-based Community Safety Knowledge Alliance, ransomware often enters systems via phishing — that is, creating a bogus email, made to appear like it comes from a legitimate organization, including a link which grants hackers access — or via “credential stuffing,” that is, using stolen credentials from a legitimate source.

Ag and agrifood industries and policymakers are coming around to the need to deal with vulnerabilities at the farm or processor level, Botschner said on an episode of Between The Rows in December.

Organizations running on older or outdated software, for example, are a “juicy target” for ransomware, he said.

At the farm level, ensuring cybersecurity means farmers need to make sure their technology can ward off three main kinds of threats, Dr. Ali Dehghantanha of the University of Guelph’s Cyber Science Lab said in a separate release Wednesday.

Apart from ransomware, those threats include theft of confidential information — that is, anything from livestock feeding schedules to greenhouse temperatures — and vandalism by foreign actors designed to disrupt businesses’ networks.

Interrupting farm supply chains, for instance, may mean farmers lose crops and ultimately lose time and money in replacing them, Dehghantanha said. “Any disruption of infrastructure could cause disruption of the supply chain and affect food security.”

However, he said in the same release, “the level of cybersecurity protection in agriculture is minimal to non-existent… The agricultural sector is a soft underbelly from a cybersecurity point of view.”

Major ag-related targets of ransomware attacks in the past couple of years have included the U.S. (and Canadian) arm of meat packer JBS; farm equipment manufacturer Agco; and at least three U.S. grain handlers.

“Everyone or every business is potentially vulnerable, regardless of the size, and being in an out-of-the-way, rural location doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily secure,” Botschner said in December. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Quebec’s UPA hit by ransomware attack appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Provincial Labour Minister Jean Boulet on Tuesday tabled an amendment to bill 59, draft legislation that includes updates to Quebec’s workplace health and safety laws.

His amendment proposes to add Parkinson’s to the province’s list of work-related illnesses that “benefit from a presumption” requiring a reduced burden of proof — which in turn is expected to improve affected workers’ access to the workers’ compensation system.

In this case, the presumption will be conditional on affected farmers or employees having done work involving exposure to agricultural or veterinary pesticides for at least 10 years.

Also, a worker must have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s no more than seven years after his/her/their exposure to pesticides ends.

The amendment would also apply to workers in sectors where handling of pesticides is “possible,” the province said.

For the purposes of the amendment, work-related exposure to pesticides would be defined as handling or use of pesticides by contact or inhalation, or contact with treated crops, surfaces or animals, or contact with application equipment.

The proposed criteria are the same as what’s been used in France since 2012 for the same purpose, the province said.

Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease, in which certain nerve cells break down in the brain over time, affecting movement and speech. No hard cause is known, but exposure to toxins and other environmental hazards is listed among several potential risk factors, such as heredity and age.

The proposed amendment, the province said, is meant to respond to concerns raised by groups including Parkinson Quebec as well as Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) during consultations.

Boulet, in Tuesday’s release, said he’s sensitive to concerns raised about the absence of Parkinson’s from Quebec’s list of presumed occupational diseases, and his proposed amendment lines up “directly” with his goal of improving access to the workers’ comp system.

The amendment, he said, is needed now to reflect the evolution of the workplace, where prevention must take a “central role.”

The Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) — the provincial body overseeing workplace safety and health programs — will continue to work with UPA and other players in affected sectors to support prevention efforts related to workplace pesticide use, the province said.

Adding Parkinson’s to the presumed occupational disease list demonstrates the government’s support for workers in the ag sector, provincial Agriculture Minister Andre Lamontagne said in the same release. Improving those workers’ access to the compensation plan will help ensure all are treated fairly, he added.

Monsef Derraji, the labour critic for the provincial Liberals, gave Boulet credit where due, but said in a separate release Tuesday that the proposed amendment also comes after the opposition party fought for two years alongside farmers and farm workers for its inclusion.

Parkinson Quebec has long called publicly for the province to recognize Parkinson’s as an occupational disease, noting both Sweden and France have already done so.

On its website, the organization points to “no less than eight” meta-analyses — that is, examinations of data from multiple studies on the same subject — as concluding that exposure to pesticides almost doubles one’s risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Occupational exposure “doubles to triples” that risk, particularly for pesticide applicators and grain growers, Parkinson Quebec said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Quebec to reduce onus for farm workers seeking workers’ comp for Parkinson’s appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The coffee-and-doughnut chain announced Wednesday it’s now testing three types of breakfast sandwiches at “select” stores in Canada using Los Angeles-based processor Beyond Meat’s breakfast sausage patty.

The chain, owned by Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International, said it could roll out the breakfast sandwich, farmers’ breakfast wrap and a fully vegan breakfast sandwich at its 4,000-odd restaurants across Canada by the end of the summer “if market tests confirm their potential.”

Beyond Meat’s breakfast sausage patty itself is nothing new to the Canadian fast food market. A+W, which added Beyond Meat burgers to its Canadian menu in July last year, followed up in March this year by launching Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches nationwide.

Tim Hortons’ test launch, however, comes in the wake of Beyond Meat’s initial public offering (IPO) and the May 2 trading launch of the latter company’s shares on the Nasdaq.

Beyond Meat stock, which closed Tuesday at $79.68, spiked to $93 in trading Wednesday following Tim Hortons’ announcement and closed at $86.92 (all figures US$).

“A national launch would allow us to further our mission of making delicious plant-based products more readily accessible to Canadians nationwide,” Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said in Tim Hortons’ release.

Tim Hortons billed the Beyond Meat sandwiches as allowing “vegans and meat lovers alike” to “enjoy the taste and satisfaction of a breakfast classic they know and love, without sacrifice.”

Beyond Meat has also made inroads in the Canadian retail market in recent months, selling its burger patties through grocery chains including Sobeys, Safeway, Save On, Metro, Whole Foods, IGA and Co-op stores, and in the Canadian restaurant market through chains including Earl’s and Quesada.

The U.S. processor has seen some pushback from Canada’s meat sector, however.

Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) and cattle producer group Producteurs de bovins du Quebec last week said they would approach the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to prohibit the use of the word “meat” in marketing vegetable protein products.

In an opinion piece Friday on UPA’s website, the organization’s chairman Marcel Groleau argued that the Beyond Meats of the world see strong market potential in “polarization” of the food sector. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Tim Hortons to offer Beyond Meat for breakfast appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Premier Francois Legault on Thursday named Andre Lamontagne, a businessman and former supermarket owner and the MNA for the southwestern riding of Johnson, as his minister of agriculture, fisheries and food, and as minister responsible for the Centre-du-Quebec region.

Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) jumped from third-party status to defeat Philippe Couillard’s Liberals and form a majority government in the Oct. 1 election.

In a caucus heavy on rookies, Lamontagne has represented Johnson in the Quebec assembly since April 2014, when he scored for the CAQ a riding held mainly by the Parti Quebecois since 1981. He easily won his riding again on Oct. 1, coming in 13,851 votes ahead of Quebec solidaire candidate Sarah Saint-Cyr Lanoie.

Lamontagne, who holds a B.A. in business administration, a master’s degree in education psychology and a helicopter pilot’s license, operated three supermarkets in the 1980s and 1990s and co-owned a chain of travel agencies.

He later ran a management consulting firm and since 2010 has owned a business specializing in buying, refurbishing, resale and leasing of helicopters. After his election as MNA, he served as the CAQ’s critic for the economy, innovation and exports.

The new minister’s relatively limited ag background doesn’t faze Quebec’s influential Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), which noted the Johnson riding is in the midst of the Monteregie and Centre-du-Quebec, regions which combined include over a third of Quebec’s farms and farm businesses.

Thus, UPA president Marcel Groleau said Thursday in a release, Lamontagne is very familiar with the ag portfolio and the organization is eager to meet with him to discuss Quebec agriculture policy.

The UPA noted Thursday it had laid out several priorities during the election campaign, among them the protection of farmland, ensuring access to land for next-generation farmers, property taxation, risk management and Quebec’s minimum wage.

Trade issues remain prominent on the UPA’s radar, the organization said, noting the ongoing tariff fight between the U.S. and China and its effects on ag commodity prices, as well as concessions made in the new U.S./Mexico/Canada trade pact.

The province’s dairy, pork and crop sectors are either already directly affected by those issues or soon will be, the UPA said.

Among other ministries important to farmers, the UPA also noted Legault’s appointments of Marie-Chantal Chasse as environment minister, Pierre Dufour as forestry minister, Francois Bonnardel as transport minister and Andree Laforest as minister for municipal affairs.

Sylvie D’Amours, who before Oct. 1 was the CAQ’s agriculture critic, also returns to the assembly and was named Thursday as minister for indigenous affairs. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post CAQ taps businessman as Quebec’s new ag minister appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Les producteurs de bovins du Quebec (PBQ) announced its membership in the CCA during the provincial body’s annual meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Quebec City.

“At a time when new frontiers are continually opening up and our buyers have new requirements, this new membership is a reflection of our desire to grow, and to enhance our ability to face new industry challenges,” PBQ chairman Claude Viel, a cattle feeder and dairyman in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, said in a release Friday.

CCA membership allows the Quebec organization to sit on “pan-Canadian” working committees and access more information on files such as foreign trade, animal welfare, sustainable beef and cattle production’s carbon footprint, the PBQ said.

According to the CCA, its provincial member associations serve as the “communications link” between the national body and cattle producers.

“We are pleased to welcome (PBQ) and look forward to their working alongside all our provincial association members in our efforts to represent Canada’s beef industry,” new CCA chairman David Haywood-Farmer said in the same release.

CCA’s outgoing chairman Dan Darling and director of government affairs John Masswohl attended the PBQ meeting for Viel’s announcement.

Founded in 1974 and known as the Federation des producteurs de bovins du Quebec until 2016, the PBQ represents about 15,600 cattle producers on 11,000 farms in the province through 14 regional syndicates and is an affiliate of Quebec’s Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA).

According to the provincial body, Quebec’s cattle producers market over 710,000 cattle per year, representing farm gate sales of about $1 billion, making beef and veal cattle the fourth biggest livestock sector in the province by value.

The PBQ, in its release, noted it’s now working to prepare a development plan targeting a 50 per cent increase in Quebec cattle production by 2025.

CCA’s eight other member organizations include Alberta Beef Producers, the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, Manitoba Beef Producers, Beef Farmers of Ontario, the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, Nova Scotia Cattle Producers, New Brunswick Cattle Producers and Prince Edward Island Cattle Producers. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec cattle producers join national body appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Le Bulletin des agriculteurs — now owned and published by Glacier FarmMedia, operator of this website — recently released its January 2018 issue under the theme “100 ans et tourne vers l’avenir” (100 years and forward-looking).

Le Bulletin published its first issue on Feb. 2, 1918, as the journal of the Societe cooperative agricole des fromagers du Quebec, with its stated mission “to promote co-operation and the advancement of agriculture.”

The farm journal over the years helped develop writers who went on to become mainstays of Quebec literature, including Gabrielle Roy and Claude-Henri Grignon. It also first published the adventures of Onesime, a popular character created by Albert Chartier, who today is considered the father of the comic strip in Quebec.

Le Bulletin also did its part to launch Quebec’s ubiquitous general farm organization, the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA).

The magazine’s publisher Joseph-Noe Ponton in 1924 printed in its pages an invitation to the meeting which led to the formation of the UPA’s predecessor, the Union catholique des cultivateurs. The UCC went on to publish its notices in Le Bulletin before launching its own journal, La terre de chez nous, in 1929.

Le Bulletin, during the 1960s, also helped encourage the development and adoption of innovations in farming such as artificial insemination, milking machines and field corn and alfalfa production.

“These few landmarks of our history clearly show the commitment of Le Bulletin’s craftsmen and craftswomen to remain pertinent over time,” Yvon Therien, Le Bulletin’s current publisher and editor, said on its website Wednesday.

“Our written content has always been in symbiosis with the evolution of the agricultural world and its need for information. These last 100 years, Le Bulletin stayed faithful to its mission: pass on knowledge and innovation to help our farmers prosper.” — AGCanada.com Network

The post Le Bulletin marks 100th anniversary appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

UPA members had recently pledged to revoke previously-permitted access to their land for snowmobile trails starting Monday (Feb. 6) in a dispute dating back to last March’s provincial budget.

Laurent Lessard, the province’s new agriculture minister as of Jan. 26, announced Friday he had stopped the planned rollout of reforms to the farm property tax credit program (PCTFA) and would revert it to the program model that was in place up until Dec. 31.

In a statement, Lessard said he was choosing the “economic development of the regions” over the PCTFA reform plan.

The province had announced last March that management of the PCTFA would shift to Revenu Quebec (RQ) starting Jan. 1 this year, with an eye toward simplifying the program and easing eligibility requirements to allow an additional 2,500 farmers to receive PCTFA benefits.

The UPA, however, has argued the changes to the PCTFA formula would lead to an average hike of 38 per cent in farmers’ property tax bills.

Lessard said the province was investing more money in the new PCTFA than under the existing program, but the “variations between certain producers were judged to be unacceptable.”

Discussions last week with UPA representatives showed the two sides were in an “irreconcilable situation,” he said Friday.

Despite calling a halt to the PCTFA reform plan, Lessard said he still wants to work on ways to help smaller-scale producers by creating a new tax credit program in the near future.

UPA president Marcel Groleau, in a separate statement, said the province had made a “good decision” in cancelling the PCTFA reform plan and it was no longer necessary for farmers to revoke access to their land for off-road trails.

However, he said, the province has not yet announced any plans to work with farmers, municipalities and the relevant provincial ministries on a sustainable farm property taxation model.

The UPA has estimated farmland values have seen a “substantial” rise of 800 per cent over the past 20 years, and the assessment model used by municipalities has added to the tax pressure on farmers, Groleau said.

Parti Quebecois ag critic Andre Villeneuve, in a separate statement, agreed the province mustn’t sweep the issue of farmland taxation under the carpet.

Villeneuve said he had warned the Liberal government last April that the planned changes to the PCTFA could leave individual farmers paying thousands more out of pocket. “Why wait until there are real negative impacts on the tourism season to act?”

Denise Grenier, presidente of Quebec’s federation of snowmobile clubs (FCMQ), said in a separate statement Friday her organization was “very satisfied” that the dispute was resolved. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec’s winter trails to remain open as tax reform halted appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

L’Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) said Wednesday it had been planning such a move in late 2016 but on Dec. 20 had asked members to hold off on withdrawing access to their land until Feb. 1.

The UPA, in a release, said it had hoped delaying the move would allow the provincial government to better assess the “negative effects” of proposed reforms to its farm property tax credit program (PCTFA) and work with municipalities, provincial ministries and the UPA on a sustainable solution.

The delay is now over and farmers are asked to withdraw public snowmobiling privileges starting Feb. 6, the UPA said, in the hopes that a firm deadline and a new minister in charge of the agriculture file will help resolve the issue.

The UPA said Thursday it knows “certain producers” have already withdrawn access to their land and respects their decision. “They have been very patient,” the group said.

The group’s move is in response to an announcement last March from the province that management of the PCTFA would shift to Revenu Quebec (RQ) starting Jan. 1 this year.

The province at the time said its goal in shifting the program to RQ jurisdiction was to simplify the program and reduce its eligibility requirements, allowing an additional 2,500 farmers to receive PCTFA benefits.

The UPA forecasts, however, that changes to the PCTFA formula will lead an average hike of 38 per cent in farmers’ property tax bills, on top of increases in property taxes relating to farmland values, which the group said have risen by 800 per cent over the past 20 years.

At the end of December, then-agriculture minister Pierre Paradis appointed tax lawyer and Universite de Sherbrooke professor Luc Godbout to study the impact of PCTFA reform on Quebec farms and report to government by the end of February.

Paradis has since been removed from the provincial Liberal caucus for unrelated reasons and replaced by another former agriculture minister, Laurent Lessard.

The UPA said Thursday it will continue to make its case to the province and understands the recreational tourism industry will be disappointed, but said the issue involves real stakes for family farms and their future.

Quebec’s federation of snowmobile clubs, the Federation des clubs de motoneigistes du Quebec (FCMQ), said it “recognizes the UPA’s right to make demands and act to defend its members’ interests.”

The FCMQ said it also supports the UPA’s demand to delay the implementation of the farmland tax reform, “without, however, being in agreement with the pressure tactic used.”

Snowmobile club administrators will respect farmers’ decisions on withdrawing land use, but “at no time will trail closures be initiated by member clubs,” the FCMQ said.

Closure of snowmobile trails on UPA members’ lands will lead to “significant negative impact” on winter tourism activity, the federation said.

“It is now one minute to midnight,” the FCMQ said, urging the province to “sit down with the UPA and negotiate in good faith in order to reach a mutually acceptable solution.”

The UPA membership previously threatened snowmobile trail closure in December 2010, in a dispute with the province over proposed changes to its ag income stabilization (ASRA) program. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Quebec farmers to shut snowmobile trails in tax dispute appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.