(Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

CUSMA compensation set for supply-managed sectors

Feds pledge over $1.7 billion in payments, programs

A final round of payments and programs for Canada’s supply-managed dairy and feather sectors — this time in compensation for the sequel deal to NAFTA — is now on deck for 2023 and beyond. Compensation to those sectors for domestic market concessions granted under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was telegraphed in federal Finance Minister Chrystia […] Read more

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Dairy commission fills board vacancy

Green tech CEO named to commissioner spot on CDC board

Concerns that the Canadian Dairy Commission could be caught short at its board table have been resolved with a new appointment to a vacant commissioner’s chair. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Sept. 27 announced Shikha Jain will be the CDC’s commissioner for a four-year term effective Sept. 15. Jain, who lives at Guelph, is […] Read more


In a photo posted Nov. 6, incoming Berthier-Maskinonge MP Yves Perron meets with the riding’s outgoing NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau to pick up active files from her constituency office. (Facebook)

Bloc Quebecois president tapped as party’s ag critic

The Bloc Quebecois will head into the House of Commons next month with a new critic handling the agriculture portfolio. Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has named Yves Perron, the rookie MP for Berthier-Maskinonge, as the party’s critic for agriculture, agri-food and supply management. As the Bloc’s ag critic, Perron replaces Mirabel MP Simon Marcil, who […] Read more

Food security is an issue in this election for 54 per cent of Canadians. (FatCamera/E+/Getty Images)

Food, farming not expected to be big election issues

Canadians don’t think that food and agriculture will be a significant issue in the current federal election. A survey conducted Sept. 9 and released Tuesday by Angus Reid Global with the support of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab shows 31 per cent of Canadians believe food and agriculture will be a prime electoral issue during […] Read more


Undeterred by tariffs, U.S. beef exports were up nine per cent from a year ago seen January through August.

Tariffs remain irritant

Prime Cuts with Steve Kay

One word — relief — summed up the completion of a new trade pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. Agricultural leaders in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico all breathed deep sighs of relief after the three countries signed the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. That’s because the new pact leaves intact all the elements […] Read more

Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, shown here at a Nov. 1, 2018 press conference, considers the steel and aluminum tariffs the Trump administration imposed against Canada illegal.

Dairy issue nags as U.S., Canada prepare to sign trade pact

New York/Ottawa | Reuters — Dairy remains a sticking point between the United States and Canada as the countries prepare to sign a new North American trade pact this week, according to four sources familiar with the matter. U.S. objections to Canada’s protected internal market for dairy products was a major challenge facing negotiators during […] Read more


Eureka!  At last, we have a renegotiated NAFTA

Eureka! At last, we have a renegotiated NAFTA

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

While it seems like forever to us, these kinds of diplomatic trade battles usually take several years to settle, not just a little over a year. Of course, President Trump wasn’t around before now, pushing people’s buttons and impatiently demanding results like a business tycoon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a major point that the […] Read more

Comment: What was all the fuss about?

Whew. That was close. As I write this we are at the end of the first week after NAFTA supposedly freshened up and became the USMCA. I can’t imagine what your first impression was when you got the news. Mine was relief, followed quickly by confusion. Is this all there is? Other than the whipping […] Read more


U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Make America Great Again campaign rally in Topeka, Kansas, U.S. October 6, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Down to the bitter end

Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer

I’ve talked to a lot of cattlemen across America in the last year. To a man, or woman, they are not comfortable with some of President Trump’s brash New York style. Of course, one has to remember how his business career forged him. He has dealt with wealthy, egotistical national and international property owners; tough […] Read more

A Holstein heifer on pasture in Quebec. (Lurin/iStock/Getty Images)

Trudeau takes Quebec dairy gamble to preserve big trade deal

Ottawa/Montreal | Reuters — With his political future at stake, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will mount a charm offensive to placate dairy farmers who say he sold them out in order to win approval of a continental trade deal. Compounding Trudeau’s challenges in the influential province of Quebec, where many dairy farmers are based, […] Read more