Jean Rousselle. (Video screengrab from Assnat.qc.ca)

Quebec Liberals name new agriculture critic

New leader names former Laval police officer to handle ag file

Quebec’s official opposition Liberals have shuffled their shadow cabinet and moved their labour critic, a former police officer, to the agriculture portfolio. Dominique Anglade, who was named last month as the Liberals’ new leader, on Tuesday appointed Jean Rousselle, MNA for the Laval-area riding of Vimont, as the party’s critic for public safety and for […] Read more

(PorcOlymel.com)

Quebec pork plant to restart at reduced pace

Olymel plant closed due to COVID-19 cases

Olymel plans to gradually bring a hog plant in Quebec’s Mauricie region out of a two-week shutdown starting Tuesday following a number of COVID-19 cases among its employees. The meat packing arm of Quebec-based Sollio Co-operative Group announced Saturday it will resume slaughter and cutting operations at Yamachiche, Que. starting Tuesday. Nine people working at […] Read more

(Assnat.qc.ca)

Quebec ag lender offers break on loan payments

Crop insurance enrolment deadline also postponed

Quebec’s provincial farm lending agency is set to offer a six-month moratorium on loan repayments to any customers who ask for one, against what it describes as a “crisis” for the ag sector. La Financiere agricole du Quebec (FADQ) said Saturday the six-month stay would help lighten the obligations for farm businesses, providing them liquidity […] Read more


A rendition, by Genitique, of the planned biomethanization plant to be built at Warwick, about 65 km southeast of Trois-Rivieres. (Groupe CNW/Energir)

Quebec ag co-op to power up on dairy cattle manure

About a dozen Quebec dairy farms will be getting their collective manure together next year for the province’s first-ever ag co-operative devoted to renewable natural gas. Coop Agri-Energie Warwick, launched Monday, plans to start construction this spring on a $12 million biomethanization plant which will take in slurry and manure from dairy cattle mixed with […] Read more


Standing corn west of Giroux, Man. on Oct. 21, 2019. (Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan shows corn, soy output down across board

Despite increases in Ontario’s harvested acres for both soybeans and corn, the province’s production of both crops in 2019 followed the rest of Canada’s lower in Statistics Canada’s latest estimates. StatsCan’s November estimates for production of principal field crops, released Friday, dropped Canada’s production of soybeans to six million tonnes, down 18.5 per cent from […] Read more

F. Menard’s retail butcher shop at Ange-Gardien underwent a major renovation in July 2018. (FMenard.com)

F. Menard’s pork industry assets cleared for sale

Antitrust regulators have cleared the path for La Coop federee to take up a significantly larger, vertically integrated share of its home province’s pork packing, feed milling and hog production sectors. The agribusiness co-operative announced Thursday its Olymel and Sollio Agriculture arms have “received the green light” from the federal Competition Bureau to buy the […] Read more

CN employees picket outside the company’s rail yard at North Battleford, Sask. on Nov. 25, 2019. (Canadian Cattlemen photo by Lisa Guenther)

CN, Teamsters reach deal to end strike

Montreal | Reuters — Teamsters Canada and Canadian National Railway on Tuesday said they reached a tentative deal to end a strike at the country’s largest railroad that had entered its eighth day, disrupting supply chains across the country. “We have a deal,” a CN spokesman said. The union said normal operations will resume on […] Read more


File photo of propane tanks. (Joe_Potato/iStock/Getty Images)

Union says propane shortfalls may be CN’s own making

Propane shortages for grain dryers and heating fuel in the wake of a strike by Canadian National Railway (CN) conductors and yard workers appear to be “largely manufactured” by the railway, according to the union for the striking workers. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC-CTY), which represents over 3,000 CN staff in Canada who walked […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Propane shortage looms as CN strike hits third day

Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — Shippers scrambled to shift freight onto trucks on Thursday as a strike at Canada’s biggest railroad, Canadian National Railway, hit its third day, leaving the critical fuel propane and other goods stranded. Some 3,200 unionized employees, including conductors and yard workers, hit picket lines on Tuesday in the biggest such action […] Read more