General

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to bar farm subsidies to wealthy Americans, a step that small-farm advocates said could lead to reform of U.S. farm supports that cost billions of dollars a year. The provision against subsidies to people with more than $1 million a year in adjusted gross income (all figures […] Read more

A veteran Hamilton-area MPP and former cabinet minister is Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s choice for minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs in a cabinet short on ag experience. Ted McMeekin, the MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, was sworn in Thursday as ag minister following the Oct. 6 election, which saw McGuinty’s Liberal government reduced just shy […] Read more

Supermarket company Sobeys has “realigned” its organizational chart around its Sobeys and IGA grocery store chains rather than by geography. The Nova Scotia-based company on Thursday said it has formed two business units, each with its own president of operations. The IGA unit includes the company’s IGA chain plus four other Quebec-based retail chains, IGA […] Read more

Alberta’s newly minted premier has tapped a farmer and rookie MLA as her new minister of agriculture and rural development, in a shuffle that also includes several departmental mergers. Evan Berger, who was elected as the MLA for the southwestern riding of Livingstone-Macleod in 2008, comes to the ag portfolio with a resume of farming […] Read more

The minister in charge of Newfoundland and Labrador’s agrifoods agency has wound up unemployed in the governing Tories’ march to a third majority provincial government in a row. Shawn Skinner, the MHA for St. John’s Centre and the provincial minister of natural resources since December last year, lost his seat Tuesday night to the NDP’s […] Read more

One of Canada’s biggest casual restaurant brands is warming up expansion plans for smaller cities and rural communities with the launch of a smaller-store prototype. Boston Pizza International’s new smaller-scale store design, at about 4,100 square feet, is expected to make it “more affordable than ever to own a Boston Pizza franchise,” the company said […] Read more

Farmer Greg Marshall has resigned from his post as president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS). In a letter this week to APAS board members and staff, Marshall cited health reasons for his decision, which follows what the organization called a “near-fatal” heart attack he suffered at his home in Regina last week. […] Read more