Reading Time: 7 minutes The last few years have been tumultuous for Canadian grain farmers, especially in the West. Not only have we seen the end of the single-desk CWB monopoly, but we also watched as Ottawa passed Bill C-18, the Agriculture Growth Act (which included the approving UPOV 91) and as major changes were made to AgriStability. Farmers […] Read more
Are Canada’s farm organizations actually listening to their members?
Amid the falling commodity prices and rising input costs, one question is getting louder. Who do our farm organizations really represent?
When farm leaders meet provincial politics
Does it always pay to put your “X” beside the farmer’s name on the ballot?
Reading Time: 8 minutes It isn’t a unique story. In the late fall of 2010, Manitoba farmer Ian Wishart called a press conference to announce that he was heading into provincial politics, and that he had decided to seek the Progressive Conservative nomination for his Portage la Prairie constituency. Until then, Wishart had been the well-regarded president of the […] Read more
CWB’s chosen suitor weighs West Coast terminal idea
Reading Time: 2 minutes The new Prairie grain player tapped to take a majority stake in the former Canadian Wheat Board is now considering the possibility of its own port terminal. Bunge Canada and Saudi-owned crown corporation SALIC Canada, in their joint venture G3 Global Holdings, have agreed to a separate joint venture with West Coast port logistics firm […] Read more
Building a career in the grain industry, from the pavement up
Is Charlene Bradley a template for a new generation of farmers?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Working in the grain industry had seemed an unlikely choice for Charlene Bradley. “If someone had said to me in Grade 12 that I’d be living on a farm and managing a grain elevator,” she now says, “I would’ve looked at them like they had three heads.” After all, growing up in Edmonton didn’t provide […] Read more
No emergency debate on CWB sale
Reading Time: 2 minutes Members of Parliament won’t be having a debate on the sale of the former Canadian Wheat Board anytime soon. Andrew Scheer, speaker of the House of Commons, on Monday rejected the request from Pat Martin, the New Democrats’ MP for Winnipeg Centre, for an emergency debate on CWB’s planned sale of a 50.1 per cent […] Read more
Opposition seeks Commons debate on CWB sale
Reading Time: 2 minutes The federal opposition New Democrats are asking for an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the pending sale of majority control in CWB, the former Canadian Wheat Board. Winnipeg Centre MP Pat Martin, the party’s critic for public works and government services, announced Friday he has written to Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer requesting […] Read more
Guenther: Farmers keep minority stake in CWB, for now
Reading Time: 3 minutes While G3 Global Grain Group is set to scoop a majority stake in CWB, grain farmers will be able to hold onto some equity in the former Canadian Wheat Board over the next seven years at the least. G3 is a new joint venture between Bunge Canada and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment (SALIC) Canada, […] Read more
Bunge, Saudi Arabia to buy control of CWB
Reading Time: 4 minutes Agribusiness giant Bunge and the Saudi Arabian government’s ag investment arm are the joint “successful acquirer” of the former Canadian Wheat Board. Bunge Canada and SALIC Canada, an arm of the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co., on Wednesday announced their new Winnipeg-based joint venture, G3 Global Grain Group, will pay $250 million to CWB […] Read more
Top court’s dismissal halts farmers’ suit over CWB assets
Reading Time: 3 minutes The bulk of a proposed class action by four Prairie farmers, over what they called the federal government’s “expropriation” of Canadian Wheat Board assets, has hit its final wall. The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday dismissed, with costs, the farmers’ application for leave to appeal their 2013 loss in Federal Court. The four — […] Read more
CWB’s new laker boat opens St. Lawrence Seaway
Reading Time: 2 minutes The first of CWB’s new laker vessels marked the official opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway for 2015 on Thursday, passing through the South Shore Canal’s St. Lambert Lock near Montreal. The seaway navigation season’s official opening had previously been set for March 27, but officials opted in early March to put off the opening […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
