HALO Air Ambulance is the only dedicated medevac helicopter that covers southern Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan, forming the boundary of the former Palliser Health region, which covers 50,000 square kilometers. Since its inception in 2007, HALO has dispatched over 550 missions, from their base in Medicine Hat, Alta. When it comes to air ambulances, it… Read More
The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI) has launched a Canada-wide campaign to connect consumers to the Canadian food system. The campaign, dubbed “It’s Good, Canada,” aims at highlighting the food system that works 24/7 to deliver safe, quality, and affordable food to Canadians and global customers. It features personal stories of Canadians working in… Read More
Not only is there a wide gap between internet speeds in rural versus urban parts of Canada, but the gap has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to data shared by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). In the month of April, the median download speed for rural Canadians was 3.78 Mbps, compared with… Read More
The federal government has committed to investing up to $9.2 million to fund up to 700 new positions for young people in the agriculture industry through its Youth Employment and Skills Program. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau made the announcement on Tuesday. “During this unprecedented time, our food producers are working hard to feed Canada, while… Read More
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has created a temporary ministerial exemption process that opens the door to inter-provincial movement of meat and poultry products from establishments that are not federally-licensed. Normally, meat from provincially-inspected facilities is not allowed to be sold beyond a province’s boundary, but the federal agency is offering an exemption if… Read More
Add Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show to the list of events that will not be taking place in-person this year. The farm show was slated to be held September 15-17, 2020 at Woodstock, Ontario. On Monday, organizers for the Glacier FarmMedia-owned event said they are not moving forward with an in-person show this year due to… Read More
The federal government says it’s still committed to completing its review of the legislation that applies to Canada’s grain industry, but the timeline is now unknown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada launched the latest review of the Canada Grain Act in March 2019. Together with the Canadian Grain Commission, AAFC started… Read More
Western Canada’s soybean and corn seed industry is seeing some changes, as Delmar Commodities is dropping its Legend Seeds business and signing new distribution agreements with Sevita International Corporation and Horizon Seeds Canada Inc. Delmar will also be rebranding its Legend Seeds Canada trade name to “Ceres Global Seeds,” reflecting the name of the Minneapolis,… Read More
Manitoba-based pork producer and processor HyLife is expanding its processing capacity with the acquisition of a slaughter plant in the U.S. The company says it is partnering with Glen Taylor, and purchasing a 75 per cent equity stake in Prime Pork LLC from the Taylor Corporation. Prime Pork operates a recently-renovated processing plant at Windom,… Read More
Canadian-developed autonomous field unit DOT has made its debut in Ontario, beginning with a commercial fertilizer application in Chatham-Kent. This first autonomous unit is owned by Haggerty Creek and contributes to operator efficiency, says Chuck Baresich, general manager of Haggerty Creek. “The operator can be answering calls and providing service to customers while the machine… Read More
Although revenues and profits were lower in the second quarter at John Deere, the stock market took a “not as bad as I thought” approach on Friday. At press time, stock was trading higher on the news. According to CNBC, the construction equipment maker reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $2.11 per share, compared to the… Read More
It has been a real struggle for meat packers to hold or build slaughter capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak. Not too long ago analysts thought slaughter levels would not increase to 80% of capacity until mid summer but in both Canada and the U.S., the weekly slaughter is climbing back faster than first thought. The… Read More
Paterson Grain says it has shipped the largest-ever grain train on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) network. According to the company, the train consisted of 167 new high-capacity hopper cars, and carried 16,313 metric tonnes of grain from Paterson’s Foothills Terminal in Bowden, Alta., to the Alliance Grain Terminal in Vancouver. Paterson reports the… Read More
While farm groups are stressing the urgency of changes to business risk management programs, an important meeting in July that served as a soft deadline and a forum for possible action on the issue has been postponed. The annual meeting of agriculture ministers from across Canada that was slated to be held at Guelph, Ont.,… Read More
The federal government is tweaking the eligibility criteria to help more businesses access the $40,000 interest-free Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan. Unrolled earlier this spring as part of its COVID-19 relief measures, the government says up to $10,000 of the loan will be forgiven if the rest of the principle is repaid by the… Read More