
Feds boost Living Labs’ reach to all provinces
Nine projects, including first-Indigenous led lab, share $54M
Reading Time: 3 minutes The first crop of federally-funded “Living Labs” backed by the Agricultural Climate Solutions (ACS) program, set up to prove carbon-sequestering on-farm processes, takes the concept to the six provinces where such farm-level labs weren’t yet in place. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, speaking Thursday in Calgary, announced $54 million from the $185 million, 10-year ACS program […] Read more

JBS to automate beef warehousing at Brooks
Packer to replace current fully manual system
Reading Time: 2 minutes International meat packer JBS has enlisted a major robotics and automation company to overhaul the warehousing system at one of Canada’s biggest beef plants. JBS Foods Canada on Friday announced a $71 million project in partnership with New Zealand-based Scott Technology, to design and build a system that can handle and store up to 85,000 […] Read more

Brandt to build trailers at new Saskatchewan plant
Equipment maker aims to free up space in Regina
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ag and industrial equipment manufacturer Brandt plans to start making its lines of utility trailers at factory space it owns in Moose Jaw, Sask., freeing up its factory floors in Regina to expand other product lines. The Brandt Group of Companies announced Tuesday it expects to start production of its trailer lines late this summer […] Read more

CN signals staff to return to work Wednesday
IBEW, railway to go to binding arbitration
Reading Time: 2 minutes Signals and communications workers at Canadian National Railway (CN) are set to end their 17-day strike and return to work Wednesday morning. CN, in a statement Monday, said the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) System Council 11, which represents about 750 of the company’s employees across the country, had agreed to take its labour […] Read more

Surge in U.S. renewable diesel supply won’t offset loss of petroleum diesel
Reading Time: 3 minutes Reuters — A flood of U.S. renewable diesel plants set to come online in the next three years will not be enough to offset the loss of petroleum diesel refining capacity from plant closings since 2019, a Reuters analysis of federal data shows. U.S. refining capacity has declined in the last two years, as plants […] Read more

CN service continues as signals staff strike
Talks continue after IBEW-represented employees stopped work Saturday
Reading Time: < 1 minute Canadian National Railway is reporting “normal” rail operations after its signals and communications workers walked out on strike starting Saturday. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents about 750 CN employees across Canada, served the railway with strike notice last Wednesday and started their strike Saturday morning, the company said. IBEW […] Read more

PAMI to close Portage la Prairie location
Revenue challenges in recent years blamed for Manitoba site's closure
Reading Time: < 1 minute The product development, testing and design firm Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI), will be closing its Portage la Prairie, Man. location at the end of July. Citing revenue challenges in recent years as the reason for downsizing, the institute informed staff and clients of the closure of its River Road facility in Portage, prior to […] Read more

GM CEO says ‘we are selling every truck we can build’
Rising fuel prices not seen undermining big truck demand, yet
Reading Time: < 1 minute Detroit | Reuters — General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday the automaker is “selling every truck we can build” and expanding North American truck-building capacity, even as U.S. gasoline prices hit record highs. Barra made her comments during the automaker’s annual shareholder meeting. GM is pursuing a two-track strategy: Investing heavily in electric […] Read more

Watching a new world order unfold
How much damage is 2022 doing to global supply chains for equipment manufacturers?
Reading Time: 6 minutes I remember watching the start of the 1970s BBC series The World at War. The screen showed the wreckage of a French village. Over it, Lawrence Olivier entoned, “Down this road in 1944, the soldiers came. When they left, a community which had lived for a thousand years was dead.” If such a documentary was […] Read more

‘Petro-plectic’ anger rises toward fuel prices
Fuel refiners seen booking 'epic' revenues
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Fuel prices are very likely to continue to increase with summer approaching, according to Tom Kloza, the Florida-based global head of energy analysis for Oil Price Information Services. “I wish I could say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I would say right now, it’s just a flicker,” he […] Read more