Western Canada is slowly emerging from a blast of arctic temperatures over the weekend, but the winter had otherwise been unusually mild.

Many cities experienced their warmest December ever recorded and British Columbia’s snowpack is on average 44 per cent below normal, according to provincial data. The dry winter follows Canada’s hottest summer on record, partly due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, and is raising concerns that 2024 could be another record-breaking wildfire year.

Despite plunging temperatures in recent days, the winter overall is likely to stick to a milder, drier pattern, said Weather Network meteorologist Doug Gillham.

Agriculture

As of Dec. 31, 70 per cent of the country was abnormally dry or in drought, according to Agriculture Canada, with the worst conditions in southern Alberta, western Saskatchewan and north-central British Columbia.

Virtually all of the Prairies have received less precipitation than normal during the past 60 days as of Jan. 8, with large stretches of each province collecting less than 40 per cent of usual precipitation.

In Alberta, three years of drought have raised the cost of feeding cattle and drained dugouts that the cattle drink from. This has forced some farmers to reduce their herds. Canada’s cattle inventory hit its lowest level on record in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

Farms in southern Alberta depend on irrigated river water to sustain crops of potato and sugar beet. Non-irrigated Prairie farms produce most of Canada’s wheat and canola, much of which are exported.

Oil and gas

Regulators in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada’s main oil and gas-producing provinces, have urged companies to cut back on water use because of drought. In December the Alberta Energy Regulator said it may restrict access to water due to extremely low levels in many parts of the province, especially the South Saskatchewan river basin.

Firms are taking steps to manage potential shortages although companies are not changing development plans yet, said Tristan Goodman, CEO of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada.

Companies that usually take their water from tributaries are looking for larger sources within the same basin, while others are building more permanent and temporary water storage facilities or planning drilling programs to coincide with the peak of the spring snowmelt, Goodman added.

Hydro power

BC Hydro’s largest water reservoirs in British Columbia’s north and southeast are below normal levels, a spokesperson for the province’s electric utility said. BC Hydro imported 10,000 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2023, about one-fifth of its total energy needs, the spokesperson said.

Forestry and wildfires

Alberta still has 60 active wildfires burning and British Columbia more than 100, illustrating the dry and mild state of conditions.

Reduced snowpack means snow will likely melt faster in the spring, prolonging fire season and stretching firefighting resources, said Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildfire science at Thompson Rivers University.

Widespread wildfires could reduce the areas forestry companies are allowed to harvest, while prolonged drought weakens trees by making them more susceptible to disease, he added.

Winter sports

Western Canada’s 92 ski areas typically receive around 9 million skier visits every year, according to the Canada West Ski Areas Association (CWSAA), and the sport contributes CAD $2 billion a year to British Columbia’s economy.

This year a number of ski hills including Red Mountain in Rossland and Big White near Kelowna delayed their opening dates due to warm temperatures and lack of snow.

Conditions are improving but CWSAA CEO Christopher Nicolson said reports from a number of ski hills suggested visitor numbers were lower than usual over the Christmas period.

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Chosen by Alberta’s governing United Conservatives (UCP) on Oct. 6 to replace outgoing premier Jason Kenney, Smith on Friday announced Kenney’s incumbent minister of agriculture, forestry and rural economic development, Nate Horner, as her new minister of agriculture and irrigation.

Horner tweeted Friday that he “look(s) forward to building on our government’s historic investment of nearly $1 billion in irrigation infrastructure” and to “supporting an ag sector that’s driving economic growth and job creation.”

Smith, in a release Friday, said the new cabinet is “committed to standing up for Albertans, growing our economy and addressing affordability.”

A cow-calf rancher before entering politics and the MLA for the south-central constituency of Drumheller-Stettler since 2019, Horner had served in the ag and forestry file since last November.

The provincial forestry file was merged into the agriculture ministry by then-premier Rachel Notley’s New Democrats at the start of their term in government in 2015.

Smith’s shuffle moves that file to a new ministry of forestry, parks and tourism, to be led by Central Peace-Notley UCP MLA Todd Loewen, a farmer and former Wildrose MLA who ran against Smith and others for the UCP leadership earlier this month.

Smith on Friday also named Glenn van Dijken, a farmer and the MLA for what’s now Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock since 2015, as her parliamentary secretary for agrifood development.

Van Dijken is well known in Alberta agriculture circles; he and his wife Barb were named Alberta’s Outstanding Young Farmers in 2001 and he later served as a co-chair for the national Outstanding Young Farmer program. He was also a founding member and director of the Western Hog Exchange.

Among other cabinet appointments of interest to Alberta farmers, former energy minister Sonya Savage becomes minister of environment and protected areas; Devin Dreeshen, who Horner replaced last year as ag and forestry minister, returns to cabinet as minister for transportation and economic corridors; and Rebecca Schulz, formerly minister for children’s services, moves to the municipal affairs file.

In this week’s other provincial cabinet shuffle, returning Quebec Premier Francois Legault has re-appointed Andre Lamontagne as his minister of agriculture, fisheries and food and as minister responsible for the Centre-du-Quebec region. Legault’s Coalition avenir Quebec (CAQ) was re-elected to government on Oct. 3.

Among other Quebec cabinet appointments of interest to farmers, Benoit Charette returns as minister for the environment, climate change and parks and wildlife; Maite Blanchette Vezina becomes minister for natural resources and forestry; and Genevieve Guilbault, formerly minister for public security, moves to the transport portfolio and also remains deputy premier. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“The cows have a role to play in the total balance of the equation, and that’s a pretty significant role,” says Jeff Braisher, who produces high-end timber and raises cattle at Golden, B.C.

Here in the Columbia Valley, Braisher’s operation consists of private forestry land and Crown land. In addition to grazing open grasslands, he uses transitory grazing, which takes place in areas where timber has been harvested.

“One of the things that we try to manage for is that combination between tree growth and grass growth,” he says.

“Harvesting trees is part of the equation for us because … that’s part of our business model, and so after the trees are harvested, that’s grazing for the cows after that for a period of time.”

With the right management practices, agroforestry can be an important part of maintaining this balance. Agroforestry is “the practice of using trees, shrubs, plants and animals on the same land in an integrated system that benefits all, while potentially providing better economic returns than if the land was used for one purpose alone,” according to the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) website.

Forest grazing is one method of agroforestry, where producers increase their grazing capacity by pasturing cattle in naturally forested rangelands. Another form is silvopasture, a system in which livestock grazing is incorporated with timber production.

“The native plant community is best strategically grazed when the trees are younger and the canopy is more open, which allows more light to reach the forest floor,” BCRC’s resource on agroforestry states. “As the forest matures, the canopy closes, reducing the understory plants, shrubs and browse. Once the canopy cover exceeds 50 per cent, grazing often becomes unfeasible.”

It’s recommended to graze forested rangelands just once per season, only taking 25 per cent of the total forage production. Trees slow snowmelt, delaying forage growth, so it’s best to graze these areas between mid-June and August.

On Braisher’s ranch, the stocking rate depends on the area being grazed. “We run on a rotation here, and so the transitory grazing is part of what we’re doing in these open fields and these pastures. So we never keep our cows in one location for very long,” he says.

“This year, we slowed our rotation right down because of the dry conditions, and that seemed to work okay for us. If we have particularly lush conditions, we can increase the speed of a rotation; the cows tend to do a little better because the grass is at a better stage of growth for them.”

In some regions, such as the Maritimes, forested rangelands and woodlots provide ideal winter shelter for cattle and spots for feeding. However in regions such as B.C., cattle are often brought home from forested rangeland in winter.

Grazing in the Boreal Forest

“We’ll feed in the open ground and they’ll winter in the bush. We use the bush as windbreak; it’s a natural shelter for the cattle,” says Mark Campbell, who ranches with his wife, Bluesette, his parents and brother.

This cow-calf operation, consisting of between 700 and 750 head, uses holistic management principles. The two principles are to avoid overgrazing and to cover bare ground for optimal health and production. The Campbells have found that an 85-day recovery period is optimal for their land, and this extends to forested areas. They tend not to graze these areas in the spring, as the grass isn’t where it needs to be compared to other pastures.

“We don’t get the grazing days in the forest land that you do in the meadows because the grass production’s not there,” says Mark. “The same principles apply in that land that apply in any other land. The better job you can do grazing it, the better it will grow as time goes by.”

They have about 100 pastures on 4,200 acres and generally move their cattle daily. “They’re designed that way so that they can accommodate our entire herd for one day so that we aren’t moving more frequently or don’t have to if we don’t want to,” says Bluesette.

While some of their forested pastures are too dense for feeding cattle and won’t leave the residual impact they want to improve the land, they have one particular forested pasture that has seen incredible improvement over two decades through the use of holistic management.

“When we moved home, we didn’t used to get a day in there — we had less cattle then than we do now, and now we can comfortably put them in. So over 20 years, we probably doubled the carrying capacity on that chunk of ground,” says Mark.

Finding equilibrium

To avoid these risks, Braisher watches for specific areas where the cattle like to congregate. “They can trample the roots of these trees, and especially if the conditions are wet underneath the forest canopy, and so sometimes it invited disease into the trees,” he says. He’s found that mature trees can tolerate trampling by cattle a bit more than younger trees, and some species stand up to this better, too.

The age of the trees dictates how forested areas are grazed. While young trees offer the most forage production, care needs to be taken so they aren’t damaged at this stage.

“Young, juvenile trees that are somewhere between three feet and 10 feet tall, the cows actually really love those trees. They love to go hang out in those because there’s usually a lower canopy in those, and it breaks the wind for them and provides a bit of an environment for them to have some protection,” Braisher explains.

“That’s really hard on them, and so there’s places where, for instance, we would love to be able to feed cattle near a water site in a field where we know that the field would benefit from the nutrients applied, but we’ll sometimes shy away from that just because of what the cows can do to the trees in those particular situations.”

If fall comes early and is particularly frosty, he’s found that the cattle like to bite off the tops of the young trees. “We try to avoid those types of situations in order to facilitate healthy tree growth, but at the same time the landscape without cows can be much more brushy and actually can suppress the evergreen species out of there.”

Similarly, grazing forested areas has allowed the Campbells to prevent the encroachment of willows and invasive species that would otherwise choke out their open pastures. “When I was a kid, they used to burn this country every spring. That was how brush control was done, and we haven’t done that here since probably the mid-’80s,” says Mark. “When we quit doing that, there are places that we used to hay where the willows are now 10 or 15 feet high.”

Another important benefit of this system is fire suppression, as grazing decreases the amount of fuel on the forest floor. “All that fuel load becomes a major fire hazard, and it becomes almost unstoppable in these kinds of conditions that we’ve seen in the last number of years here,” says Braisher.

“As you get to these areas where the cows have been an integral part of the landscape, the ability to be able to control that fire actually increases.”

When determining how to make the most of integrating cattle into forested areas, Braisher recommends narrowing in on what you’re managing for. “We’re not managing strictly for cows, and nor are we managing entirely for trees in this particular case, and what we’re looking for is balance,” he says.

“We need to see good forest regeneration, we need to see those plants healthy, those trees healthy and ideally we need to manage for it in a way that the grass is just healthy. Where we noticed things can go sideways a little bit is when you lose that environmental balance,” he continues, adding that being single-minded about just one aspect can lead to neither area thriving.

“When you look at the balance, then that’s really what contributes to the ultimate profitability of what we’re doing,” he says.

Like Braisher, the Campbells have found balance within their grazing system and holistic management, which encompasses grazing forested areas. This larger system allows them to raise cattle on a landscape where it wouldn’t be possible for three families to make a living ranching otherwise.

“We don’t want all trees everywhere, and we don’t want all open ground everywhere either,” says Mark. “A year like … (2021), where we didn’t get any rain, our best grass was in the trees.” c

BCRC tips for forest grazing

• Learn about best management practices for your area and local or provincial regulations for grazing forested rangeland.
• Assess the area in question for available resources before grazing in forested rangeland.
• Graze a small area at first, monitoring the health of the forest as you go.
• Manage grazing based on preferred ranges and groups of cattle better suited to particular areas (yearlings who can travel greater distances versus cow-calf pairs).
• Always have an alternate forage supply source.

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But the changes are unlikely to happen unless governments act to spur them along, the report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released on Monday found.

“We are in the early stages of climate and agriculture policy development, but we need to start with acknowledging the urgency of the challenge,” said Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “The IPCC warns that governments thus far have not been up to the task.”

About 22 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions came from agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors in 2019, the report said, around half of which were from deforestation. Much of the rest came from the combustion of fossil fuels.

Mitigation measures in those sectors — including protecting forests from clearcutting, sequestering carbon in agricultural soils, and more sustainable diets — can provide as much as 20-30 per cent of the emissions reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5 or 2 C above pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say that is the threshold at which climate change risks spinning out of control.

“Indigenous peoples, private forest owners, local farmers and communities manage a significant share of global forests and agricultural land and play a central role in land-based mitigation options,” the report said.

While the changes required in the agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors — dubbed AFOLU by climate specialists — would not cost much to implement, there is little momentum so far to trigger them, the report said.

A lack of institutional and financial support, uncertainty over long-term tradeoffs of how land is managed, and the dispersed nature of private land holdings have hindered implementation so far, it said.

“Land provides us with so much, for example, food, nature, and our livelihoods,” said Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, vice-chair of the IPCC working group that authored the report. “These competing demands have to be carefully managed.”

One major obstacle is that dictating diet is divisive.

The IPCC panel’s initial report summary included a recommendation that consumers shift to plant-based diets and reduce their intake of meat, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

But the final version of the summary included a recommendation instead for balanced diets that include sustainably produced animal products alongside plants like grains and legumes.

Asked about the changes, Joanna House, an expert on land use at the University of Bristol and an author of the report, said she could not comment on why the changes were made but said the issue of dietary changes is complex.

“If meat is produced sustainably, it can be low-carbon and support soil carbon and nutrients,” she said. “If produced unsustainably, particularly in intense systems requiring large amounts of animal feed that result in deforestation, it can cause large net emissions.”

Global demand for livestock products is growing, a headwind to cutting agriculture’s emissions, the report said.

— Leah Douglas reports on the U.S. energy and agriculture sectors for Reuters from Washington; additional reporting by Gloria Dickie.

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Canada, the world’s top exporter of natural Christmas trees, is grappling with a shortage that will likely be exacerbated by historic flooding in British Columbia, where some tree farms are underwater.

A phenomenon known as an atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain on the Pacific province in just two days, destroying roads and bridges and leaving some communities cut off from the rest of Canada.

Canada exports about 2.3 million Christmas trees per year, with some 97 per cent going to the United States. While British Columbia does not export cut Christmas trees, it is a significant domestic supplier. That means shortfalls in that province will have to be made up with supply from elsewhere, leaving fewer Canadian trees for export.

“We can’t ship them because all the roads are closed,” said Arthur Loewen, whose tree farm at Chilliwack has been swamped. “We’re basically shut down until the water recedes.”

Trees already cut and wrapped for wholesale buyers are piled up on wood pallets, surrounded by water, he said. His self-serve fields, where people choose and cut their own Christmas trees, are 75 per cent flooded.

Loewen said that if the waters don’t subside within the week, younger trees could be damaged, hurting future supply. Water levels were starting to drop by Thursday.

The flood impact comes as North America is already seeing more demand than available supply, in part due to people staying closer to home in the pandemic.

“In North America, we’ve seen such an increase in demand for the real tree,” Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association, said. “I’ve been fielding calls at my office since the spring.”

Dwindling production has also hampered supply. Canada had 2,381 Christmas tree farms in 2011, which fell to 1,872 by 2016 and continues to decline as farmers retire. Planted acres fell by 16 per cent in the same period.

Late frosts, hot and dry summers and a labour shortage are adding to the problem, particularly in Ontario, where planted acres were down by 25 per cent from 2011 to 2016.

Dan Laird, who owns a tree farm in Ottawa, said he won’t be selling Christmas trees this year for the first time since 1977, citing the summer weather toll on his crops.

“I just don’t have an abundance of trees,” he said, adding that he’d need to double his staff to open up this holiday season. “I couldn’t get the workers.”

Christmas tree buyers can expect less selection than in the past and should expect to pay 10-15 per cent more this year, said Quebec farmer Larry Downey.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal.

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Brandt Tractor, the equipment sales arm of the Regina-based Brandt Group, on Monday announced an agreement to buy all of publicly-traded Cervus Equipment Corp. for $19.50 a share, valuing the Calgary-based chain at about $302 million.

Cervus’ holdings today include 22 Deere dealerships in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., 17 Peterbilt dealerships in Ontario and Saskatchewan, eight forklift dealerships in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, seven Deere dealerships in Australia and nine in New Zealand. Another Deere dealership is due to open at Penhold, Alta., near Red Deer, next year.

Cervus dates back to 1982, when the company’s current chairman Peter Lacey bought five Deere dealerships in Alberta. It listed on the TSX in 2000 and went on to buy further outlets across Canada, expanding also into New Zealand and Australia in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Brandt Tractor, meanwhile, operates 56 dealerships across Canada, selling Deere equipment such as skid steers, dozers, excavators and feller bunchers and also handling sales and service for brands such as Ditch Witch, NPK, Hammerhead and Topcon.

Brandt CEO Shaun Semple said Monday the addition of Cervus would see Brandt Tractor shift its dealership chains into three new segments “dedicated to serving the agriculture, transportation and material handling industries.”

Those segments, he said, “will further establish Brandt as a total solutions provider across our diverse customer groups.”

“As a private company with a committed, well-capitalized and long-term owner, Cervus will be better positioned for the next stage of evolutionary growth for our dealerships,” Cervus CEO Angela Lekatsas said in the same release.

“The size and scale of the entity created by the combination of our two companies will allow for increased investment into Cervus for the benefit of our employees and customers.”

John Deere Canada and Peterbilt Motors have already consented to the change of control, Brandt and Cervus said in their release.

Brandt and Cervus said they expect to close the deal sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, pending the outcome of a special meeting of Cervus shareholders to be held sometime in October.

Among Cervus shareholders, Lacey, who holds about 18 per cent, has already locked into an “irrevocable” agreement to vote his shares in favour of the Brandt deal.

Other Cervus directors and officers, who in all hold about one per cent, have “revocable” agreements in place to vote in favour. Also, as of Monday, Brandt and affiliates together hold about nine per cent of outstanding Cervus shares.

Brandt said its proposed deal represents a 37 per cent premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average price per Cervus share for the period ending Aug. 13.

Cervus on Monday also announced its best-ever second quarter, booking $14.88 million in adjusted before-tax income for the period ending June 30, up from $8.08 million in the year-earlier period. Gross revenue from sales and service for the period came in at $402.3 million, up from $340.97 million in Cervus’ 2020 Q2.

Ag equipment revenue specifically was up 10 per cent in the quarter, “primarily driven by increased customer demand for new equipment, supported by strong market fundamentals in all our geographies.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Regina-based Brandt Group announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to buy the assets of GeoShack Canada Co. and the Canadian assets of Inteq Distributors, both owned by Dallas-based Ultara Holdings.

In Ontario, GeoShack is billed as the “long-time exclusive supplier” for Topcon Positioning Systems equipment, including sales, service, and rentals of GPS and other equipment for the ag, construction, survey and engineering industries, through locations in Toronto, Ottawa and London.

California-based Topcon’s agricultural products include precision seeding, spraying and harvest equipment as well as autosteer and guidance systems.

Formed in 1995, Geoshack expanded to Ontario in 2003 when it merged the Toronto- and Exeter-based businesses of Laserline Ontario with those of three other independent distributors in Texas, Ohio and Michigan. Outside Ontario it will still have 16 U.S. locations in eight states.

The GeoShack deal, on top of Brandt’s “pre-existing Topcon footprint” in Western and Atlantic Canada — and a new separate agreement in which Topcon has assigned distribution rights to Brandt for the Quebec market — makes Brandt “the exclusive dealer for Topcon construction and geopositioning products for all of Canada.”

“The territorial expansion of the Brandt operation will scale our presence and penetration in Canada,” Eduardo Falcon, general manager for Topcon’s geopositioning group, said in a separate release.

Brandt’s other acquisition, Inteq Distributors, is a “complementary business” with a distribution centre at Exeter, Ont. providing sales and service on “an extensive selection of construction instruments, optical equipment, survey supplies and accessories.”

The deal with Ultara is expected to close June 26, giving Brandt what it calls a “comprehensive retail footprint to supply premium geopositioning equipment to Canadian construction and forestry contractors, engineering firms and survey companies.”

“We are very excited to add this highly respected team along with these key product lines and support services for our customers in Ontario and Quebec,” Brandt CEO Shaun Semple said in Wednesday’s release.

“The combination of the GeoShack team and Brandt’s national infrastructure is going to be powerful for Ontario customers,” GeoShack president Scott Beathard said in the same release.

“We’ve worked very hard to build strong relationships and a solid operation in the Ontario market over the years and we’re completely confident that Brandt will continue to grow the business and provide unmatched value for clients in that market.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Premier Rachel Notley on Sunday named Whitecourt-Ste. Anne MLA Oneil Carlier to the now-expanded portfolio, which takes over responsibility for forestry from the department of environment and sustainable resource development.

Including Notley and 11 ministers — down from 16 and three associates under Premier Jim Prentice — the new cabinet was described Sunday in a government release as “lean and efficient… firmly focused on solving the challenges that face Alberta.”

The new ministers, the government said, “will partner with Alberta’s job creators — in energy, forestry, agriculture, high-tech, tourism and small business — to grow and diversify our economy.”

Carlier is one of several rookie MLAs who rode Notley’s Orange Wave into the legislature in the May 5 election, unseating Prentice’s party whip and caucus chair George VanderBurg, who’d held the riding for the Tories since 2001.

Raised on a cattle and grain operation at Val Marie in southwestern Saskatchewan, Carlier worked as a geotechnical technician for AAFC’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration from 1981 to 2002.

At PFRA, he was involved in “construction quality control” on projects such as southern Alberta’s Bassano Dam rehabilitation project and Crawling Valley irrigation project, and was also involved in union affairs with the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Carlier — who now lives with his wife near Darwell, north of Wabamun Lake — later served in Edmonton as a PSAC regional representative for units including staff with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment Canada.

Opposition

In the legislature, Carlier will face a relative veteran in provincial politics, Drumheller-Stettler MLA Rick Strankman, who Wildrose leader Brian Jean named on May 11 as the official opposition critic for agriculture.

Strankman, a grain grower at Altario, Alta., northwest of Kindersley, Sask., and a former treasurer of the Western Barley Growers Association, has held the riding for Wildrose since 2012, handling critic portfolios including skills training and labour, culture and tourism, jobs, and Service Alberta.

Outside Alberta, Strankman is also known for risking jail time for his part in cross-border protests trucking wheat into the U.S. in 1996, in violation of the former Canadian Wheat Board’s single marketing desk on wheat exports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper pardoned Strankman and 12 others from the Farmers for Justice group in 2012, after deregulating the CWB single desk.

Pledges

The provincial NDP’s platform leading up to this month’s election included a handful of general pledges for the ag sector, such as a review of federal rail and transportation policies for their effect on Alberta farmers, and a push for “reliable, sufficient, and fairly priced rail service to markets.”

The party also promised to “strengthen landowners’ rights for fair compensation and due process” in issues relating to surface rights; to “stand up for farmers’ rights to save and sell their seed;” and to “work with small producers to eliminate barriers to local food production and marketing.”

Notley also pledged a “green retrofitting” loan program to help families, farms and small businesses reduce energy usage affordably, and to “strengthen environmental standards, inspection, monitoring and enforcement to protect Alberta’s water, land and air.”

The NDP has also promised to end Prentice’s “costly and ineffective” carbon capture and storage plan, and to reinvest funds budgeted for the program in 2015-16 into construction of public transit. — AGCanada.com Network

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Having returned to office in the May 4 election, Premier Wade MacLauchlan on Wednesday announced his new cabinet, appointing former education and transportation minister Alan McIsaac as minister of agriculture and fisheries.

As the agriculture and fisheries portfolios merge, the forests, fish and wildlife division from the former ag and forestry ministry will be transferred to a new department of “communities, land and environment.”

The communities, land and environment department will also be responsible for municipal affairs and land use policy, including carrying out recommendations from the 2010 Thompson report on land use and local governance, plus the development of a new Water Act.

Rural development, until now part of the department of fisheries, aquaculture and rural development, will move to a new department of economic development and tourism.

“Food accounts for a major share of our economy and holds enormous economic potential and promise in the years ahead,” the government said Wednesday in a release. “This potential can best be developed through an integrated approach which links our farmers, fishers, processors, and bioscience industries into a single powerful value chain.”

The new ag and fisheries department, the province said, “will work to grow P.E.I.’s food sector through product development and innovation, marketing and branding, and access to capital for industry members.”

MacLauchlan said the new departments and cabinet assignments “reflect our view of the synergies that exist between tourism and economic development, among our key primary industries, and by addressing a continuum of service in areas such as senior care and mental health and addictions.”

“Equality of votes”

McIsaac, the MLA for Vernon River-Stratford since 2007, comes to the ag and fisheries portfolio with a significant farm policy resume. A dairy farmer before entering politics, he previously chaired the province’s milk marketing board and was an executive member with the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture and Holstein Canada.

McIsaac — who lives at Mermaid, across the Hillsborough River from Charlottetown — has also previously chaired the legislature’s standing committee on agriculture, environment, energy and forestry.

The new ag minister’s return to the legislature this month was far from decisive, as polling results on election night put him just two votes ahead of Tory candidate Mary Ellen McInnis. A judicial recount revealed the result was in fact a tie.

Under the province’s Elections Act, in situations where a judge has performed the recount and “an equality of votes is found to exist between candidates,” the returning officer then must “toss a coin to determine the winning candidate.”

McIsaac won the coin toss, which was carried out Tuesday.

The provincial opposition Tories haven’t yet named their shadow cabinet. Their incumbent agriculture and forestry critic, Souris-Elmira MLA Colin LaVie, remains available after winning his riding in the May 4 vote. –– AGCanada.com Network

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