Reading Time: 3 minutes Many of the Prairie livestock producers forced by drought to make “difficult herd management decisions” in the 2022 income tax year are now eligible to defer the taxable income from those decisions. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Tuesday released the initial list of designated regions in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan where livestock tax deferral […] Read more
Initial drought list ready for 2022 livestock tax deferrals
Much of Manitoba, southern Alberta designated for 2022
Quebec’s UPA hit by ransomware attack
Farm organization, affiliate bodies affected
Reading Time: 2 minutes Quebec’s overarching farmer organization, l’Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), has confirmed its computer systems were hit by a ransomware attack earlier this month. UPA, in a release last Thursday, said it’s working with a cybersecurity firm to analyze the nature and scope of the attack, as well as any possible solutions to securely restore its […] Read more
Feds apologize for Saskatchewan farming colony scheme
Apology comes year after settlement with Peepeekisis Cree Nation
Reading Time: 3 minutes Just under a year after Peepeekisis Cree Nation’s settlement with the Canadian government over the File Hills Colony forced farming scheme, the federal government has made a formal apology. Operating from 1898 to 1954, the File Hills Colony scheme involved what the government today describes as the “involuntary relocation” of graduates from residential schools and […] Read more
CUSMA leaders to discuss agreement during Mexico visit
Reading Time: < 1 minute Mexico City | Reuters — U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will discuss terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) agreement, which was ratified in 2018, during a visit to Mexico, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday. “We’ll have a summit to discuss terms of the trade agreement treaty… in Mexico,” […] Read more
Cash advances’ interest-free portion temporarily raised
APP funds now interest-free for first $250K
Reading Time: 2 minutes The federal government’s low-interest loan guarantee program for Canadian farmers will sweeten the interest-free portion of its offer for the next two program years to help with farm cash flow. Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Thursday announced a temporary increase in the interest-free portion of the Advance Payments Program to $250,000, up from the usual […] Read more
WTO strikes global trade deals deep into overtime
Deals reached on food security, health and fishing; formerly defiant India joins consensus
Reading Time: 3 minutes Geneva | Reuters — The World Trade Organization’s 164 members approved a series of trade agreements early on Friday that included commitments on fish and pledges on health and food security after more than five gruelling days of negotiations. The deals were ground out over five days of bargaining at a conference of more than […] 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
U.S. cowboy poet and veterinarian Baxter Black, 77
Black appeared on Carson, NPR and in Grainews
Reading Time: < 1 minute U.S. cowboy poet, storyteller and veterinarian Baxter Black, whose work was a fixture for years in farm journals including Grainews, died Friday at age 77, his family reported. Born in New York in 1945, Black grew up in southern New Mexico and graduated from Colorado State University in 1969. He later relocated from Colorado to […] Read more
Canada launches offset credits to help tackle emissions
Landfill gas protocols now launched; ag-related protocols soon to follow
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canada on Wednesday launched a credit system for greenhouse gas offsets, a major part of its plan to cut carbon emissions, starting with a set of rules stipulating how projects can generate tradeable credits by capturing gas from landfills. The government said protocols for four other sectors including agriculture and forest management are […] Read more
Ontario ag minister returns in another Tory majority
Lisa Thompson retains seat in election
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s governing Progressive Conservatives will head back to the legislature with their incumbent agriculture minister at the caucus table. Lisa Thompson, Premier Doug Ford’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs since June last year, easily held her southwestern riding of Huron-Bruce in Thursday’s provincial election by a spread of 15,594 votes over Liberal challenger […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
