Reading Time: 3 minutes Winnipeg/Ottawa | Reuters — After failing to grow wheat in the Yukon territory 15 years ago, farmer Steve Mackenzie-Grieve gave it another shot in 2017. Thanks to longer summers, he has reaped three straight harvests. This spring he plans to sow canola on his family’s 450-acre farm near Whitehorse, a city not much further from […] Read more
Wheat in Whitehorse: How climate change helps feed Canada’s remote regions
Newfoundland and Labrador also pushing to expand arable land base
Temporary foreign workers to be allowed in, Canada reiterates
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada will allow temporary foreign workers with valid visas to enter the country, officials said on Friday, offering possible salvation to the agriculture industry even as Ottawa moves to limit the spread of a coronavirus outbreak. Canada’s labour-strapped farms rely heavily on nearly 60,000 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to help plant […] Read more
Coronavirus stalls talks with China on canola ban
Officials 'not in position to pursue technical discussions,' Bibeau says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — The coronavirus outbreak has stalled talks between Canada and China about Beijing’s decision to block Canadian canola seed shipments, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Friday. China, angry at Canada’s detention of a top Huawei Technologies executive in December 2018, blocked all imports of canola seed last March on the grounds they […] Read more
Trudeau demands rail blockades be lifted
Canadians' patience running out, PM says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday demanded aboriginal protesters lift rail blockades that are hurting the economy and made clear police should, if necessary, enforce injunctions to remove the obstacles. Trudeau also told a news conference that the Liberal government’s talks with various indigenous leaders over the last two weeks […] Read more
Court orders big ag firms to hand over documents in antitrust probe
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — A Canadian federal court has ordered a group of major agriculture companies to hand over records and communications in an antitrust probe sparked by allegations some businesses tried to block online farm-supply startup Farmers Business Network (FBN). In a series of court orders issued Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Denis Gascon said […] Read more
Competition Bureau probing big ag chem companies
Probe to look at firms' response to FBN's arrival in Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — The Canadian Competition Bureau said on Thursday it was investigating certain agriculture companies for alleged anticompetitive practices over allegations of trying to block an online farm-supply startup from doing business in Western Canada. The regulator did not provide details on specific companies involved in the probe, but documents filed on Jan. 30 in […] Read more
Trudeau wants CUSMA deal ratified quickly
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday urged legislators to quickly approve a new continental trade pact but the main opposition party said it wanted to study the deal, indicating the ratification process could drag on. Canada is the only one of the three signatories not to have formally blessed the […] Read more
U.S.-China deal should secure Canadians’ release, Trudeau says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that the U.S. government should not finalize a trade deal with China unless the pact also secured the release of two Canadians detained by Beijing. The two men were picked up separately in December 2018, shortly after police in Vancouver held Huawei Technologies […] Read more
CN strike drags on, hitting grain exports, fertilizer output
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ottawa/Montreal | Reuters — A prolonged strike at Canadian National Railway, the country’s largest railroad, sent further shocks through the economy on Monday with grain shipments scuttled and layoffs planned at fertilizer producers and an auto shipment terminal. As Canada’s biggest rail strike in a decade entered its seventh day, industry kept pressuring the government […] Read more
Propane shortage looms as CN strike hits third day
Reading Time: 3 minutes 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
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
