While agriculture plastics were not mentioned in the federal government’s recent pledge to ban single-use plastics, the pre-campaign promise certainly has many asking if ag plastics, such as twine, bale wrap, and grain bags, might end up being impacted. According to Christina Seidel, executive director of the Recycling Council of Alberta, the federal government’s direction… Read More
When it comes to addressing climate change, there is no shortage of money changing hands. Here in Canada, the federal government tacked on a $20/tonne carbon price for Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick after these provinces failed to meet Ottawa’s targets on carbon pricing. Without a “price on pollution” the federal backstop has become… Read More
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL) has earmarked $41.8 million to build a new state-of-the-art, high-throughput fertilizer terminal near Grassy Lake, Alta. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of this year, with the terminal expected to be fully operational for the summer of 2020. The southern Alberta branch will have a storage capacity of 34,400 metric… Read More
As we approach the ending of another winter, Mother Nature is not being kind. As some Ontario and Quebec farmers learned last week, wind-whipped snow loads can quickly become too much for even brand new construction. Reports of at least one dairy barn, a hog barn, and a drive shed collapsing in the last week has… Read More
Ontario has announced the passing of Bill 32, The Access to Natural Gas Act. The legislation makes it possible for a new program that, once the regulations are in place, would be designed to expand access to natural gas to more parts of rural and northern Ontario, as well as First Nations communities. The province says the… Read More
Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie is hoping 2019 will be a prosperous year for farmers in the province. Earlier this week, the Colingwood, Ont., farmer was acclaimed to his third term as leader of the farm lobby organization. A big part of Currie’s success over past year has been his leadership in drafting… Read More
There are many who likely bristle at the thought of a foreign country investing in Canada, perhaps because most equate “investment” with “land buying.” But when we’re talking foreign direct investment, in this case, we’re talking about companies investing in Canadian businesses, and vice versa. And, as J.P. Gervais, chief agricultural economist with Farm Credit… Read More
Crude oil shipments by rail in Canada are at record highs and forecast to continue climbing, as oil production has increased with no major expansion in export pipeline capacity. At the same time, executives for Canada’s two major railways say they intend to maintain rail capacity for grain. 198,788 barrels of oil per day were… Read More
Agriculture requires the transportation of goods via highway, water, and rail across North America. When it comes to challenges, the rivers in the U.S. and railways in Canada tend to get much of the media coverage, but what about the trucking industry? At first thought about the issue you might suspect that quality of the… Read More
The head of one of Canada’s largest pulse crop exporting companies is optimistic we’ll see Western Canadian crops shipped through the Port of Churchill again. AGT Food & Ingredients is one of the partners in a group that has reached an agreement-in-principle to purchase the port and the rail line leading to it from OmniTrax…. Read More
Canada is 9.985 million km² producing a wealth of farm commodities and natural resources. This has been a week dominated by the discussion on the movement of oil, but what about other commodities that cannot flow through a pipe? Wheat, canola, pulses, and soybeans require rail to get from the Prairies to port to be… Read More
This has been a very challenging winter for grain shipments, to say the least. Much of the finger pointing has been directed at the railways but should more of the blame fall to more than CN and CP? It’s clear operational performance must improve, but the railways have been operating in the environment that they… Read More
Farm groups in Alberta are applauding the provincial government’s effort to advance oil pipelines, thereby taking pressure off the rail freight system. “Team Alberta” sent a letter to Premier Rachel Notley this week expressing support for the Trans Mountain pipeline and other crude oil pipelines. The Trans Mountain line was approved by the federal government… Read More
As the volume of grain backed up on farms in Western Canada grows, proposed transportation legislation that could help grain shippers address poor rail service remains stalled in the Senate. As it’s written right now, Bill C-49 — originally introduced in the House of Commons last spring — would give grain shippers the right to… Read More
One of North America’s largest advantages has been the infrastructure in place to move agricultural commodities from inland to the coast for export. Farmers and ranchers complain about some of the bottlenecks and issues, but, comparatively speaking to Russia and Brazil, North American highways and byways have historically been in much better shape. That might… Read More