Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appears at a news conference in Ottawa on Sept. 24, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Blair Gable)

Agriculture, agrifood wish lists pile up ahead of long-delayed budget

Freeland's budget due out Monday afternoon

Agriculture and agrifood sector stakeholders will learn Monday which of their requests make their way out of the pile and into a long-awaited federal budget. Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2021 budget is scheduled to be released Monday in the House of Commons, at about 4 p.m. ET. Canadians didn’t get a 2020 budget: it […] Read more

(Assnat.qc.ca)

Set-aside funded for Quebec hog, cattle, big game producers

Feds, province pledge $21.8 million AgriRecovery plan

Farmers tending feeder hogs, fed cattle and big game animals such as elk, red deer, bison and wild boar in Quebec can expect $21.8 million in AgriRecovery to compensate for COVID-19’s drag on the province’s slaughter capacity. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and her Quebec counterpart Andre Lamontagne on Thursday announced their governments’ respective 60-40 […] Read more


Prairies hit hard by drought

Prairies hit hard by drought

Parts of south-central, southwestern Manitoba among driest

MarketsFarm — A new nationwide drought map released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Canadian Drought Monitor (CDM) shows just how dry conditions are in the Prairies, especially in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Areas in southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan have experienced at least six months of drought conditions, according to CDM’s drought assessment as of March […] Read more

Percentage of average precipitation in Western Canada for the 90 days ending April 5, 2021. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada map)

Manitoba forage, grassland growers burned by drought

MarketsFarm — An ongoing lack of precipitation, which is showing no signs of letting up in the coming months according to weather forecasts, is already causing problems for Manitoba’s forage and grasslands. Growers in the province have had to deal with three straight years with lower-than-normal precipitation. In 2019, multiple rural municipalities in Manitoba’s Parkland […] Read more


(Dave Bedard file photo)

Manitoba’s education tax phase-out begins

Budget pledges a 25 per cent rebate cheque in 2021; existing farmland school tax rebate to be reduced

Manitoba’s latest budget follows through on a move the government telegraphed in last fall’s throne speech, by starting a phased removal of education tax on farm and residential properties. Finance Minister Scott Fielding’s budget, released Wednesday, calls for about $248 million in education tax rebates in 2021 alone for about 658,000 property owners. Owners of […] Read more

(Lightguard/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan to pare school tax mill rate for farmland

EPT mill rates to rise for residential, other properties

Saskatchewan’s latest budget taps down the education property tax (EPT) mill rate it sets on farmland, while raising those mill rates on other property classes. The provincial government, in Tuesday’s budget, set the provincewide EPT mill rate on agricultural land for 2021 at 1.36, down slightly from the previous rate of 1.43. EPT mill rates […] Read more


Illustration of the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, a key stage of development of Parkinson’s disease. (Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images)

Quebec to reduce onus for farm workers seeking workers’ comp for Parkinson’s

Amended rule would grant 'presumption' for pesticide exposure

Some Quebec farmers and farm workers with Parkinson’s disease may soon have an easier path to seek workers’ compensation — if they can show at least a certain amount of exposure to pesticides. Provincial Labour Minister Jean Boulet on Tuesday tabled an amendment to bill 59, draft legislation that includes updates to Quebec’s workplace health […] Read more

Before settlement in the B.C. interior, fires were a normal part of keeping grass from building up in the forest understory.

Fighting forest fires with cattle

Targeted grazing keeps the risk down around British Columbia interior communities

There’s a new group of firefighters in British Columbia, but not the usual two-legged kind. They’re cattle and they’re just doing what they do naturally — grazing — but under the watchful eye of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association. It’s leading a project to use a management tool called “targeted grazing” to reduce the intensity of […] Read more


(Strickke/E+/Getty Images)

Top court upholds federal carbon pricing policy

Farm groups, fearing unsustainable costs, press for next steps

Calgary/Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of the federal government’s carbon pricing policy on Thursday, upholding a central pillar of Prime Minister Justin’s Trudeau’s climate plan and infuriating some provinces that opposed it. The country’s top court said climate change is a threat to Canada as a whole and upheld the […] Read more

(Shironosov/iStock/Getty Images)

Ag ministers withdraw AgriStability reference margin limit

Program's compensation rate unchanged but 'remains on table'

In a move expected to provide $95 million in additional farm support per year, Canada’s ag ministers have agreed to remove the reference margin limit from the AgriStability farm income stabilization program. “That’s it! The ‘reference margin limit’ of the #AgriStability program is over! And it will be retroactive to 2020!” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude […] Read more