Reading Time: 3 minutes Provinces expressing disappointment with the federal government for not putting its share of AgriStability funding on the table are being disingenuous and failing to take their share of responsibility for reform talks that failed largely due to their tight pockets. The AgriStability saga between Prairie provinces and the federal government continues, despite the two sides […] Read more
Tag Archives politics
Opinion: The feds came with cash for AgriStability, but Prairie provinces are holdouts
Editorial: Lessons from political speeches
Reading Time: 3 minutes There’s rarely enough news in politician visits to farmer group meetings to justify a report. Sometimes there’s an announcement to be made and then they let the farm media know in advance that we need to pay attention. The script is usually similar: Tell farmers, with exact numbers, how many members they have in their […] Read more
Comment: Escaping the echo chamber on Agriculture Day
Reading Time: 2 minutes If the point of Agriculture Day is meant to celebrate and promote agriculture, it sort of succeeded on the first and failed on the second. Celebrations were done mostly inside an echo chamber. Industry people went, nobody else heard much about it. Industry can look outside of itself to see there are effective ways to […] Read more
Opinion: Why Indian farmers are so angry
The Modi government’s agricultural reforms are causing widespread uncertainty
Reading Time: 3 minutes India’s farmers have been protesting since the autumn, with a growing intensity that culminated in a violent breaching of barriers in the Red Fort in Delhi during India’s Republic Day celebrations on Jan. 26. The protests were spurred by the passing of a set of agricultural reform bills in parliament in September 2020 that aimed […] Read more
Opinion: Keep an eye on Budget ‘21
Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government’s next budget could have a significant impact on the future of Canadian agriculture. It’s worth paying attention to. Canadians didn’t get a 2020 budget: it was an early casualty of COVID-19, cancelled in the pandemic’s infancy. Instead we were offered economic updates and a series of spending announcements, almost entirely COVID-19 related. […] Read more
Opinion: Ottawa needs to better communicate TFW strategy
Provincial information isn’t always aligned
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa is right to ensure temporary foreign workers will be able to arrive in Canada despite stricter travel restrictions due to COVID-19. However, it must do a better job of getting all the provinces on board. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Jan. 29 flights to and from sunny destinations will be suspended, but federal […] Read more
Opinion: Prairie provinces not warming up to AgriStability changes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Public pressure is building on provinces still resisting federal changes to AgriStability, notably Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But there are no signs the strategy is working. Meanwhile, the federal government and those provinces in favour of the changes, hope the proposals will be accepted soon. At a Nov. 27 online meeting with her provincial and territorial […] Read more
Comment: Vaccines need national co-ordination
Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government should be taking a more assertive position in the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines. When the first batch of vaccines arrived in Canada, Ottawa released recommendations on who should receive the first doses — but the ultimate discretion was left to individual provinces. Recommendations, according to the federal government, were made to […] Read more
Managing COVID, female leadership and the climate plan
Federal agriculture minister looks ahead to 2021 and back through a challenging 2020
Reading Time: 4 minutes Questions and answers have been edited for length. Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau recently talked to Glacier FarmMedia Ottawa reporter D.C. Fraser in a year-end interview. Looking back at the year, what was the biggest personal challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic for you? Trying to identify those who were the most in […] Read more
Comment: Producers biggest losers of slow RMP talks
Reading Time: 3 minutes Politicians from different levels of government and party stripe continue to debate how to improve Canada’s business risk management programs – but already, producers have lost. Finger-pointing among elected officials began almost as soon as the latest round of federal-provincial-territorial agriculture minister meetings ended with no consensus on changes to business risk managements (BRM) programming […] Read more
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