While it’s possible roles and responsibilities will be shuffled around, nearly all of the familiar faces when it comes to agriculture policy in Ottawa were re-elected on Monday. Agriculture minister re-elected Incumbent Liberal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was re-elected in her riding of Compton-Stanstead in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, defeating the Bloc challenger by… Read More
Tag: Dan Mazier
Keystone Agricultural Producers’ board of directors has appointed Bill Campbell as the organization’s new president, after Dan Mazier stepped down earlier this month to seek a nomination for the 2019 federal election. Campbell, who served as a vice-president for Manitoba’s general farm group for the last year and half, has a mixed farm near Minto,… Read More
The president of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) has resigned his post to seek a nomination for the Conservative Party of Canada. Dan Mazier informed the board of directors for the general farm organization in Manitoba about his decision on Friday. He is seeking the Tory nomination in his home riding of Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa. Current MP… Read More
The Manitoba government says it’s going to give the revenue from the federally-mandated carbon tax back to Manitobans through tax reductions elsewhere. Several farm groups questioned how agriculture will be impacted by the carbon plan following the release of the provincial budget on Monday by Manitoba Finance Minister Cameron Friesen. “Farmers don’t have the option… Read More
Canada’s two major railways supplied less than half of the hopper cars ordered by grain shippers last week, according to data from the Ag Transport Coalition. The farm group and grain shipper coalition’s weekly report says Canadian National Railway (CN) only supplied 34 percent of cars that were ordered in week 28 of the crop… Read More
Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government introduced new legislation on Thursday aimed at protecting wetlands, while simplifying minor drainage maintenance. The Sustainable Watersheds Act also lays the foundation for an ecological goods and services program that would see farmers receive incentives for implementing best management practices that are in the public good, such as grassland and wetland… Read More
Manitoba’s new government is planning to remove what it calls “impractical and costly” regulations to make it easier to build barns and farm buildings and bring the province’s farm building code in line with rules in other Western Canadian provinces. Speaking at Keystone Ag Producers’ annual meeting in Winnipeg last week, Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler announced… Read More
Manitoba farmers are pushing the province’s new government to make changes to its property tax system after taxes owed on farmland climbed dramatically this year. Depending on the municipality and school division, property taxes rose between $2 and $29 per acre year-over-year, explains Dan Mazier, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, in the interview below. There are anecdotal… Read More
Manitoba’s provincial farm group is miffed the province is being left out of the House of Commons Agriculture Committee’s upcoming consultations for the next agricultural policy framework. With the current Growing Forward 2 framework set to expire in early 2018, MPs on the ag committee are planning to tour the country seeking input for the… Read More
It’s the week of FarmTech in Edmonton. We head to the Northlands to hear some highlights from Debra Murphy, as well as to KAP’s meeting in Winnipeg for a panel of farm leaders from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and prairie general farm groups discussing the need to “maintain social license” — here’s this week’s… Read More
Farmers and farm groups need to be involved in planning policies to address climate change, says the head of Keystone Agricultural Producers — Manitoba’s general farm group. The new federal government has made reducing national greenhouse gas emissions a priority, committing to the creation of a pan-Canadian framework for combatting climate change and to meeting… Read More
Zero should be every farm’s goal when it comes to number of injuries or accidents during seeding — how do you make that a reality? Tractors, trucks and seeding equipment across the country are starting to roll for #plant15, and with another busy season comes an elevated risk of injuries and fatalities on farms. Unfortunately,… Read More
Western Canadian farm groups are generally welcoming the increased competition that should result from turning the (incapacitated?) Canadian Wheat Board into a private grain company controlled by Bunge and a Saudi investment company, but producer groups are still seeking answers about the farmer ownership part of the deal. The agreement announced this week will see farmers owning 49.9 percent… Read More
Dan Mazier, a grains and oilseeds farmer from near Justice, Man., was acclaimed as president of Keystone Agricultural Producers at the organization’s annual meeting held this week. Mazier replaces Doug Chorney, who has reached his four-year term limit. Mazier served as KAP vice-president for the last four years, and is also chair of the workplace… Read More
The idea that municipal, provincial and national boundaries should be ignored when managing water is gaining momentum in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northern North Dakota. Around 150 delegates representing farm groups, landowners, conservation organizations, scientists and governments met in Regina last week to discuss plans for the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative. “This type of approach, a basin-wide approach… Read More