Reading Time: < 1 minute Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo’s proposed takeover of Canada Bread is expected to close as planned on May 23 after clearing its last regulatory hurdle. The Toronto company, 90 per cent owned by processor Maple Leaf Foods, announced Tuesday that Bimbo’s bid has passed federal review under the Investment Canada Act. Such a review is […] Read more
Bimbo’s Canada Bread takeover gets federal approval
PEDv found in hogs on second SE Manitoba farm
Reading Time: 2 minutes A finisher operation in Manitoba’s livestock-intensive southeast has been confirmed as the second farm in the province to host hogs with porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). According to the office of Manitoba’s provincial chief veterinary officer (CVO), the new case was identified while the CVO was investigating a PED-positive sample from an unnamed “high-traffic site.” The […] Read more
Feds won’t back national pullet marketing agency
Reading Time: 3 minutes The federal government has found the case for a national pullet marketing agency “not compelling” enough to grant the wish of a nationwide pullet producers’ group. A spokesperson for federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz confirmed Wednesday that Ritz had reviewed the report and recommendations of the Farm Products Council of Canada (FPCC) on the application […] Read more
Toronto’s Quality Meat Packers officially bankrupt
Reading Time: 2 minutes One of the last remnants of Toronto’s “Hogtown” past has formally gone bankrupt, in a move expected to permanently close the doors and strip out the assets at Quality Meat Packers and its Toronto Abattoirs arm. The two pork-packing and -processing companies in early April filed a notice of intention for a proposal to restructure […] Read more
BQ ag critic officially seeking party leadership
Reading Time: < 1 minute Bloc Quebecois MP Andre Bellavance, the party’s ag critic and a former vice-chair of the Commons agriculture committee, is officially in the running for the party’s leadership. Bellavance, 49, a former radio journalist, has been the MP for the riding of Richmond-Arthabaska and the Bloc’s caucus vice-chair since 2004. He’s served as the party’s critic […] Read more
Feds’ grain freight legislation heads to Senate
Reading Time: 2 minutes UPDATED, May 30, 2014: The federal government’s legislative package to tighten the terms of grain freight service agreements between shippers and railways has cleared the House of Commons. Bill C-30, the Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act, was delayed last Thursday due to an amendment which Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled out of order. [Related […] Read more
Ontario preparing bee loss compensation
Reading Time: 2 minutes Application packages are expected to be available late next week for Ontario beekeepers to seek compensation for the past year’s “higher than normal” bee colony death losses. Before Friday’s loss of a confidence motion in the legislature, which sends Ontario voters to the polls June 12, the provincial government on Wednesday announced “one-time financial assistance” […] Read more
SW Ont. tobacco farmers arrested in black-market probe
Reading Time: 2 minutes Farmers and brokers in southwestern Ontario’s tobacco sector are among nine people arrested for alleged roles in a black-market network for domestic tobacco. RCMP at London, Ont. on Friday reported the arrests, along with six executed search warrants and seizures of tobacco, equipment and street drugs, wrapping up a week of “numerous” operations in the […] Read more
Louis Dreyfus launches level-of-service action against CN
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Canadian grain arm of commodities giant Louis Dreyfus plans to bring Canadian National Railway (CN) up before federal regulators to answer for the railway’s level of grain service. No one from Louis Dreyfus Commodities was available by press time Monday to talk about the company’s formal complaint to the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) against CN. […] Read more
Maple Leaf books Q1 loss under PEDv cost pressure
Reading Time: 2 minutes A rise in pork prices due mainly to porcine epidemic diarrhea’s effects on the U.S. hog herd has bit deeper into Maple Leaf Foods’ bottom line for its first quarter ending March 31. “Pork markets have been impacted in an unprecedented way due to a virus in the U.S. hog industry, which has renewed pressure […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
