After the House of Commons resumed sitting last Monday (Jan. 30), NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Friday named Alistair MacGregor, MP for the Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, to an additional role as critic for food price inflation.

“Everyone should be able to afford healthy food,” Singh said in a release. “But right now, families are crossing items off their grocery list, or racking up bigger bills at the till — and the Liberals are letting it happen.”

McGregor, the party’s ag critic since 2018, will “fight for every tool possible to stop greedflation, so people have… more breathing room,” Singh said. “That includes leading the fight for a windfall tax, because we have to stop rewarding grocery giants for gouging families.”

With MacGregor’s new assignment, his previous additional role as the party’s critic for public safety goes to another British Columbia MP, the NDP’s House leader Peter Julian.

Singh also shuffled duties to two other B.C. MPs: Richard Cannings, the party’s critic for emergency preparedness/climate change resilience, will also pick up the international trade file from Windsor MP Brian Masse, while Taylor Bachrach becomes deputy critic for fisheries and oceans, taking over from another Vancouver Island MP, Gord Johns.

While the NDP sits back in fourth place in seats in the Commons behind the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois, it holds outsized influence through a “supply and confidence” agreement it reached with the minority Liberal government last March, providing support on budgetary bills and in any confidence votes until June 2025.

The party said its announcement of a food inflation critic follows Loblaw Cos., owner of major retail chains such as Loblaws, Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart, lifting the price freeze it pledged last October on its ‘no name’ food brand. The company said Oct. 17 it would freeze those prices until the end of January.

The NDP said Friday the end of that price freeze is “sparking worry about food prices rising even faster in February.”

Singh, in a separate statement Thursday, specifically called out Loblaw for ending that price freeze, saying the company’s profits “have skyrocketed. They’ve been using inflation as an excuse to hike prices higher than they need to.”

Publicly traded Loblaw releases its fourth-quarter and year-end results for fiscal 2022 on Feb. 23.

For its third quarter, the company on Nov. 16 reported food retail sales of $12.22 billion, marking a 6.9 per cent increase in same-store sales over the year-earlier period, as well as the majority of the company’s $17.39 billion in gross revenue for the quarter, up from $16.05 billion in the previous Q3. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The NDP’s agriculture critic, British Columbia MP Alistair MacGregor, on Monday introduced a private member’s bill in the Commons to create a national soil health strategy for Canada.

The strategy as proposed in Bill C-290, which got first reading on Monday, would help maintain, enhance and rebuild the capacity of soils, the NDP said.

“Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable food production, enhanced biodiversity and cleaner air and water for present and future generations. Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast depend on our ability to produce good food to keep themselves, their families and the environment healthy,” MacGregor said in a statement.

The national strategy would also have reporting requirements tied to it, including a requirement that the federal agriculture minister report on its effectiveness — and make recommendations for same — every three years after the strategy is put in place.

Beyond encouraging farmers and other land users to adopt best practices, MacGregor’s bill would create the office of a National Soil Health Advocate and establish National Soil Conservation Week.

That week would be on the third week of April each year. National Soil Conservation Week already takes place, but the strategy would give it federal recognition.

The advocate’s role, meanwhile, would be “to raise public awareness of the critical role soil plays in supporting agricultural productivity, in maintaining healthy ecosystems and in meeting global challenges, including food security and climate change.”

“Farmers are on the front line of the fight against climate change — few feel the impacts of our ever-changing weather systems more than they do,” MacGregor said.

“This bill is about ensuring they have the tools they need to keep doing their jobs to the best of their ability. When we support our farmers and food producers, Canadians see the benefits in healthy food and a safer, greener environment.”

Karen Ross, a director with Farmers for Climate Solutions, said in the NDP’s release that practices to enhance soil health are “fundamental to the future of farming.”

Private members’ bills such as C-290 rarely become law in Canada but are believed to have better chances for passage during periods of minority government such as in the current Liberal-led Commons.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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David Marit, MLA for the southwestern riding of Wood River since 2016, held his seat by a spread of 5,177 votes over the New Democrats’ challenger, teacher Roger Morgan, with 459 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted.

Marit farms at Fife Lake, about 150 km south of Moose Jaw, and served as president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities before running for provincial office. He was moved from the highways portfolio to the ag file in 2018, as Lyle Stewart stepped down from the ag post to undergo treatment for cancer.

Stewart, the MLA for Lumsden-Morse and ag minister from 2012 to 2018, also easily held his seat Monday by a spread of 4,507 votes over NDP challenger Nic Lewis, with 850 mail-in ballots still to be counted.

Ryan Meili’s opposition New Democrats, as of late Monday night, were elected or leading in 11 ridings, compared to 50 for Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party, which for the NDP would mean a net gain of just one seat over the 2016 election.

Several ridings, however, remained too close to call, with a total of 61,255 mail-in ballots to be tallied when the final count is held starting Nov. 7.

As with British Columbia’s provincial election held Saturday, the mail-in ballots — an option that got a major boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic — could still tip close contests one way or the other.

The NDP’s incumbent agriculture critic, Regina Northeast MLA Yens Pedersen, is one such example. As of Monday night, with 50 of 50 ballot boxes reporting, he was trailing Saskatchewan Party challenger Gary Grewal by 615 votes — but with 1,270 mail-in ballots remaining.

A Regina lawyer who grew up on a family farm at Cut Knife, about 50 km west of North Battleford, Pedersen had just come to office in a 2018 byelection against Grewal, held to fill a vacant seat after Saskatchewan Party cabinet minister Kevin Doherty resigned.

If Pedersen is defeated in the final vote count, the NDP again has a limited pool of obvious candidates for the agriculture critic’s job.

Among those may be Carla Beck, a Regina social worker and school board trustee and the MLA for Regina Lakeview since 2016. Beck also grew up on a family farm, near Lang, about 45 km northwest of Weyburn.

Beck on Monday night was leading Saskatchewan Party challenger Megan Patterson by a spread of 1,462 votes with 48 of 48 ballot boxes reporting — and another 2,127 mail-in ballots remaining to be counted. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Scheer on Friday named John Barlow, the MP for the southwestern Alberta riding of Foothills, as the lead opposition critic for agriculture and agri-food. Barlow replaces Quebec MP Luc Berthold, who takes up the infrastructure and communities file.

First elected in the Macleod riding in a 2014 byelection as a replacement for Ted Menzies, who had quit the previous year, Barlow returned as the MP for Foothills in 2015 and again in October’s election, topping Liberal challenger Cheryl Moller by over 50,000 votes.

Born in Regina, Barlow worked as a newspaper editor in southern Alberta before entering politics. He previously served as assistant critic for workforce development (2015-16), interprovincial trade critic (2016-17), and behind Berthold as associate ag critic (2017-18), before Scheer promoted him to employment, workforce development and labour critic in September last year.

Backstopping Barlow on the agriculture and agri-food file, Scheer on Friday named Richard Lehoux, the new MP for the Quebec riding of Beauce, as associate critic for agriculture and agri-food.

Lehoux, a dairy producer before entering federal politics, served as mayor (1998-2017) of Saint-Elzear, about 60 km south of Quebec City, as reeve (2000-17) for the regional county municipality (MRC) of Nouvelle-Beauce and as president (2014-17) of the Federation Quebecoise des municipalites (FQM).

Lehoux in last month’s election faced People’s Party leader and ex-Conservative cabinet minister Maxime Bernier, the Beauce riding’s MP for 13 years, and topped him by a spread of over 6,000 votes.

Among other critic portfolios of interest to farmers in Scheer’s new shadow cabinet, Saskatchewan MP Randy Hoback returns as international trade critic; Quebec MP Bernard Genereux will handle the rural economic development file; B.C. MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, environment; Ontario MP Colin Carrie, Canada-U.S. relations; B.C. MP Todd Doherty, transport; and Ontario MP Erin O’Toole, foreign affairs.

NDP critic returns

Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats also announced their MPs’ new critic files on Thursday, keeping Alistair MacGregor, MP for the B.C. riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, as the NDP critic for agriculture and agri-food.

MacGregor, a small farm owner and former constituency staffer for local NDP MP Jean Crowder, was first elected to the Commons in 2015 and was named the NDP’s ag critic in January last year.

Singh on Thursday also named MacGregor as the party’s lead critic for rural economic development and as deputy justice critic behind fellow Vancouver Island MP Randall Garrison.

MacGregor had previously served as the party’s lead critic for justice (2017) and for seniors (2015-17).

Among other critic files of interest to farmers in Singh’s shadow cabinet, Winnipeg MP Daniel Blaikie will handle international trade and western economic diversification; northern Manitoba MP Niki Ashton, transport; Victoria MP Laurel Collins, environment; and St. John’s MP Jack Harris, foreign affairs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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As of about 2 a.m. CT on Tuesday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals held onto power in a minority government with 157 of 338 seats, ahead of Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives with 121, Yves-Francois Blanchet’s Bloc Quebecois with 32, Jagmeet Singh’s New Democrats with 24 and Elizabeth May’s Greens with three, plus one independent, former Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Trudeau’s agriculture minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau, held her Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead on Monday night against Bloc Quebecois challenger David Benoit by a spread of 3,043 votes with all polls reporting.

Bibeau’s challengers in the 2019 contest also included one of the Green Party’s non-sitting agriculture critics, Jean Rousseau. He had served previously as the riding’s NDP MP from 2011 to 2015 but finished in fifth place for the Greens on Monday night.

Scheer’s incumbent agriculture critic, Luc Berthold, easily held his Quebec riding of Megantic-L’Erable against Bloc challenger Priscilla Corbeil by a spread of just over 11,000 votes with 232 of 233 polls reporting.

The Bloc Quebecois’ incumbent agriculture and labour critic and party whip, Simon Marcil, also easily hung onto his seat Monday night in the riding of Mirabel, 13,700 votes ahead of Liberal challenger Karl Trudel with 202 of 242 polls reporting.

Singh’s incumbent agriculture critic, Alistair MacGregor, also held onto his Vancouver Island riding, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, by a spread of 6,639 votes over Conservative challenger Alana DeLong, with all polls reporting.

The Green Party’s other non-sitting agriculture critic, Kate Storey, came in fourth in her western Manitoba riding of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa against Conservative candidate Dan Mazier, a former president of provincial general farm organization Keystone Agricultural Producers.

Other incumbents who have previously handled the ag file and are returning to the Commons include former Liberal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay, the Liberals’ former Parliamentary secretary for agriculture Wayne Easter, and former Conservative associate ag critic John Barlow.

The Liberals’ reduction to minority government status might not necessarily complicate the party’s stated plans for the agriculture and agri-food file.

Those include a review of business risk management programs; increased support for farmers against “risks beyond their control;” and an “expanded and enhanced” role and mandate for Farm Credit Canada.

The New Democrats, with whom the Liberals would be expected to partner in order to pass legislation in the Commons, put forward ag policy goals including further compensation to supply-managed sectors for loss of market share to international trade deals; defending Canadian ag exports against trade retaliation such as China’s; support for public ag research; and providing low-cost start-up loans for new farmers.

The NDP also proposed developing “a national strategy to address mental health challenges facing farmers.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Rachel Notley, leader of the province’s opposition New Democrats, on Monday announced her shadow cabinet and named Lorne Dach, MLA for Edmonton-McClung, as the party’s ag critic.

Dach came to the legislature in the 2015 election with a political science degree and about 30 years’ experience as a real estate broker.

Before entering provincial politics Dach also served on the board of homeEd, the city’s non-profit housing corporation, and as a volunteer probation officer with the Alberta solicitor general’s court intake unit.

During the NDP’s term in government, Dach served as deputy chair of the standing committee on public accounts and deputy chair of the standing committee on legislative offices.

In the province’s April 16 election, Dach held his west Edmonton riding by a margin of over 1,400 votes against United Conservative challenger Laurie Mozeson — and by over 4,400 votes against Alberta Party leader and former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel.

As ag critic, Dach will face Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA Devin Dreeshen, who Premier Jason Kenney named April 30 as agriculture and forestry minister, when the legislature reconvenes May 21.

Other shadow cabinet appointments relevant to the agriculture file include Edmonton MLAs Marlin Schmidt as environment critic, Rod Loyola as transportation critic and Thomas Dang as infrastructure critic, and Calgary MLA Joe Ceci as municipal affairs critic. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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NDP leader Jagmeet Singh on Thursday named Alistair MacGregor as critic for agriculture and agri-food, a role in which he’ll also serve as second vice-chair of the Commons standing committee on agriculture.

As ag critic, MacGregor replaces Quebec MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who Singh promoted Thursday to become the party’s House leader in the Commons. In that post, she replaces B.C. MP Peter Julian, who Singh named as finance critic.

Brosseau, the party’s lead agriculture critic since 2015, will also remain attached to the agriculture file as deputy critic, a post she’d previously held since 2012.

MacGregor, who was first elected in 2015 as MP for the Vancouver Island riding of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, had previously worked as a constituency staffer for local NDP MP Jean Crowder.

Before working for Crowder, MacGregor, who has degrees from the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University, worked as a tree planter, crew boss and supervisor. He also served two years as a board member of the Cowichan Green Community Society, an organization focused on food security.

On his MP blog, MacGregor wrote the ag critic post is “a role I am incredibly excited to take on because of the personal interest I have in the subject.”

MacGregor and his family own a “small farming property” in the Cowichan Valley, which he said “we are working hard to bring into production with the planting of fruits, nuts and vegetables, and the raising of sheep, chickens, ducks and turkeys.”

On policy matters, he said Thursday in a separate release, “the issues surrounding how we produce and consume our food are always on the forefront of the national conversation, and I am looking forward to leading the development of NDP policy on these matters and holding the government to account.”

Since his election to the Commons, MacGregor served from November 2015 to early last year as the NDP’s critic for seniors, and for most of last year as justice critic. — AGCanada.com Network

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Ron Kostyshyn lost his seat Tuesday to Tory candidate Rick Wowchuk, a schoolteacher from Swan River, by a spread of over 1,500 votes.

Kostyshyn, a cow-calf producer from Ethelbert, Man., had been the NDP MLA for the northwestern riding of Swan River since 2011 and the minister of agriculture, food and rural development since 2012.

Pallister’s Tories, at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, were elected or leading in 40 of 57 constituencies, followed by Greg Selinger’s NDP in 14 and Rana Bokhari’s Liberals in three.

The Tories, who have traditionally held most of the ridings outside Winnipeg and the province’s far north, swept all of agricultural Manitoba on Tuesday and boast a strong depth chart on the ag file.

CLICK HERE for a look at the Manitoba provincial parties’ recent answers to the Manitoba Co-operator’s questions on farming and rural issues.

Pallister, who pledged to cut the size of the provincial cabinet by a third, has several veteran MLAs who could fill the ag minister role, among them the incumbent ag critic, Blaine Pedersen, a grain and cattle producer from the Elm Creek area and the MLA for Midland since 2007.

Pedersen, the ag critic since 2011 and a former rural initiatives critic, easily held his riding of Midland by a spread of over 5,300 votes against Green Party candidate Stacey O’Neill.

The party’s incumbent child and family services critic, Ian Wishart, brings a long resume in ag policy and programming back to the legislature, having won his Portage la Prairie riding over the Liberals’ Stephen Prince by a spread of over 3,200 votes.

Wishart, the Tory MLA for Portage since 2011, is a former president of Keystone Agricultural Producers and one of the early proponents of the Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) program to support farmers in the delivery of environmental goods and services.

Another former Tory ag critic, Emerson MLA Cliff Graydon, a cattle producer at Woodmore, also won his seat by a spread of over 3,500 votes against Liberal candidate Loren Braul.

Graydon, the MLA for Emerson since 2007 and the incumbent critic for healthy living and seniors, was a founding member and director with the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association.

Among the other potential candidates for the ag file are Lakeside MLA Ralph Eichler, a former ag critic and the incumbent critic for municipal government and Manitoba Hydro; and Reg Helwer, the MLA for Brandon West and a former president of the Canadian Agri-Marketing Association (CAMA).

The New Democrats, driven back mostly to their base in Winnipeg’s core, have relatively little experience remaining on the agriculture file.

Potential candidates as NDP ag critic include Rob Altemeyer, the returning MLA for the Winnipeg riding of Wolseley and the party’s incumbent legislative assistant for conservation and water stewardship.

Selinger won his Winnipeg riding, St. Boniface, by a spread of over 1,400 votes against Tory candidate Mamadou Ka, but announced Tuesday night he would step down as NDP leader. The Liberals’ Bokhari was running third in her Winnipeg riding, Fort Rouge, against NDP candidate Wab Kinew.

Pallister, a former schoolteacher who founded a financial services company in Portage la Prairie, later served as the MLA for Portage and as a cabinet minister in Gary Filmon’s Tory government, and also served federally for eight years as the MP for Portage-Lisgar.

Pallister on Tuesday easily held his suburban Winnipeg riding, Fort Whyte, by a spread of over 5,000 votes against NDP challenger George Wong. — AGCanada.com Network

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By about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party had won 51 of 61 ridings, for a third straight majority mandate coming out of Monday’s general election.

The opposition New Democrats, meanwhile, won just 10 seats and NDP leader Cam Broten was unseated in his riding of Saskatoon Westview.

Lyle Stewart, the Saskatchewan Party’s agriculture minister since 2012, won his redrawn riding of Lumsden-Morse over NDP candidate Rhonda Phillips, a town councillor in Lumsden, by a spread of almost 4,500 votes.

Stewart, a rancher at Pense, Sask., about 30 km west of Regina, has been a Saskatchewan Party MLA since 1999 and previously served as the party’s agriculture critic during its stint in opposition.

The New Democrats’ incumbent agriculture critic, Cathy Sproule, held her riding of Saskatoon Nutana by a spread of over 1,300 votes against Saskatchewan Party candidate Jamie Brandrick, a former deputy mayor for the village of Borden.

Raised on a farm in southern Saskatchewan, Sproule was a federal government lawyer specializing in aboriginal law before winning her first election in the Nutana riding in 2011.

Sproule, the party’s ag critic since late 2011, has also served as the party’s critic for rural affairs, Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp., environment, tourism, parks, SaskPower and the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA), among others.

If Wall returns to the legislature with a cabinet shuffle, other possible candidates for the agriculture file include returning Arm River MLA Greg Brkich, previously a legislative secretary to the minister of agriculture, and Humboldt-Watrous MLA Donna Harpauer, the party’s former agriculture critic during its spell in opposition.

Both the Saskatchewan Party and NDP boosted their seat count from the 2011 election, when they won 49 and nine seats respectively, due to a redrawn electoral map with three additional ridings.

The Saskatchewan Party finished Monday night with an only slightly smaller share of the popular vote, at 62.6 per cent, down from 64 in 2011. The NDP took up about 30.4 per cent, down from about 32 per cent in 2011. The provincial Liberals and Green Party took about 3.6 and 1.9 per cent of Monday’s vote respectively. — AGCanada.com Network

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Tracey Ramsey, the NDP’s international trade critic and MP for the southwestern Ontario riding of Essex, on Tuesday tabled a motion in the Commons for Canada to set up a “payment protection program for produce growers like the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA)” in the U.S.

Up until October 2014, Canadian produce growers selling into the U.S. had been able to invoke PACA to recover payments through a U.S. federal trust if a U.S. buyer wouldn’t pay, or went bankrupt without paying.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), as of Oct. 1 that year, made good on previous threats to cut off Canadian growers’ access to PACA, unless the Canadian government came up with an equally effective dispute resolution process for buyer defaults on perishable commodities.

Since then, Canadian producers have had to post a surety bond before they can file a formal complaint against a U.S. buyer for PACA adjudication.

Ramsey’s motion calls for Canada to set up, by Sept. 30 this year, a PACA-like system that “will allow sellers to maintain an ownership trust until payment has been received.”

The motion also calls for the government to take “immediate” steps to negotiate restoring Canada’s “privileged access” to U.S. PACA funds, with the aim of restoring access by Dec. 31 this year.

The previous Conservative government’s “inaction on this file has negatively impacted this important industry, and I urge the Liberal government to resolve the issue by year-end,” she said in an NDP release.

“Resolving this issue would not only give fair protection to produce sellers here in Canada, but return us to a level playing field for our fruit and vegetable exporters selling to the U.S., our largest market,” Ron Lemaire, president of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA), said in the same release.

The motion holds the Liberals’ feet to the fire on the governing party’s election promise last fall to set up a PACA-like system in Canada.

“It is unacceptable that, despite months of warnings, the government dragged its heels and still has not resolved this dispute,” Nova Scotia MP Mark Eyking — then the Liberals’ agriculture critic, now chair of the Commons standing committee on international trade — said last fall in an Oct. 7 release.

The Tories’ “inaction put our Canadian producers of fresh fruits and vegetables at risk of non-payment for sales to the U.S., even though a single instance of non-payment could be enough to force one of our many small producers out of business.”

The Liberals at the time pledged to consult with the CPMA and Canadian Horticultural Council to create a comparable mechanism in Canada and work with the U.S. to reinstate PACA access.

“This will ensure payment for Canadian horticulture producers from companies who become insolvent or are slow to pay their bills, at no cost to taxpayers,” the party said at the time.

“Resolving this dispute is crucial for the sector, whose trade in fresh produce with the U.S. is worth over a billion dollars a year.” — AGCanada.com Network

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