(Dave Bedard photo)

Another union serves CP with strike notice

Reading Time: < 1 minute Barring last-minute deals or back-to-work legislation, staff handling locomotive and rail car inspection, maintenance and repair at Canadian Pacific Railway may join the company’s engineers and conductors on strike Sunday. Unifor, which represents about 1,800 CP employees, announced Thursday it served CP late Wednesday night with strike notice for 12:01 a.m. Sunday (Feb. 15), following […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Walmart to boost fresh food handle in Canada

Reading Time: < 1 minute The Canadian arm of U.S. retail giant Walmart has earmarked about $340 million to build 29 new retail and grocery supercentres and to expand its distribution networks for fresh food and online shopping. The company on Wednesday announced it will spend about $230 million in fiscal 2015 (ending Jan. 31, 2016) on supercentre projects, including […] Read more


(CPR.ca)

CP conductors, engineers serve strike notice

Reading Time: 2 minutes Unionized engineers and conductors on Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CP) trains have served formal notice they’ll strike Sunday, barring a negotiated deal with the company. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents CP’s locomotive engineers, conductors, trainmen and yardmen, said Tuesday it’s notified CP that the affected workers will strike effective 12:01 a.m. Sunday “in […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Strike vote passes for CP engineers, conductors

Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian Pacific Railway’s unionized conductors and engineers have voted to give themselves a trump card in talks with the company for a new contract. Eligible employees voted 93 per cent in favour of strike action “if necessary” to reach a negotiated settlement with the company, according to their union, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC). […] Read more


BMR hardware chain joins Coop federee

Reading Time: 2 minutes Agrifood processor and ag retailer La Coop federee has moved from minority stakeholder to full owner of home reno and hardware retail chain Groupe BMR. Coop federee, Quebec’s biggest agrifood company, announced Thursday it exercised an option in its 2013 purchase of a minority position in BMR, buying the retailer’s remaining shares and making it […] Read more

Saputo’s Canadian dairy division includes brands such as Dairyland, Neilson, Nutrilait, Baxter and Armstrong. (Dave Bedard photo)

Saputo names new Canadian dairy head

Reading Time: < 1 minute Canada’s biggest dairy processor has a new chief heading up its Canadian dairy division. Montreal-based Saputo Inc. announced Friday it named Carl Colizza, today the Canadian dairy division’s senior vice-president for strategic business development, as the division’s president and chief operating officer. Colizza, who’s worked for Saputo since 1998 and held several senior management posts […] Read more


CS2000, shown here in field trials in August 2014, is billed as having “intermediate” resistance to the recently-discovered clubroot pathotype 5x. (BehindTheSeeds.ca)

Against clubroot, ‘I’-rated canola sits between ‘R’ and ‘S’

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new canola variety billed with “intermediate” reaction against a new pathotype of clubroot is being placed in the zone between “resistant” and “susceptible.” Canterra Seeds, the Winnipeg firm marketing the new CS2000 hybrid variety, clarified its claim for the seed in a statement on a company blog Wednesday, granting many growers may be seeing the […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

Prairie shippers’ group expands grain car tracking

Reading Time: 3 minutes A clutch of Prairie grain industry stakeholders says its pool of weekly data on rail car spotting is getting deeper and still shows significant shortfalls in car delivery from Canada’s big two railways. The Ag Transport Coalition on Tuesday released a performance measurement update, which it says now includes aggregate data from shippers representing about 85 […] Read more


CS2000, shown here in field trials in August 2014, is billed as having “intermediate” resistance to the recently-discovered clubroot pathotype 5x. (BehindTheSeeds.ca)

Canola variety’s clubroot claim taken with caution

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new variety of canola with “intermediate” resistance to a new type of clubroot may be cause for optimism, but Alberta’s canola grower group says farmers need to know more before they buy. The Alberta Canola Producers Commission (ACPC) warned Monday that growers will need more specifics about claims that a new canola variety has […] Read more

(Canola Council of Canada photo)

Manitoba canola pest lab backed for equipment, research

Reading Time: 2 minutes A new Manitoba lab with federal, provincial and canola industry backing has been opened with the goal of staying a step ahead of canola diseases such as clubroot and verticillium wilt. The federal and Manitoba governments on Thursday announced $969,000 for equipment, including a polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) machine, and $250,000 for research at the […] Read more