File photo of steam rising from the top of a grain dryer. (Diane Kuhl/iStock/Getty Images)

New farm fuel carbon tax rule to return to Commons

Further carbon pricing exemptions clear ag committee, with sunset clause added

A bill that would exempt more farm fuels from Canada’s federal carbon pricing scheme has cleared the Commons’ ag committee and returned to the House of Commons to seek a third and final vote. C-234, a private member’s bill sponsored by southwestern Ontario Conservative MP Ben Lobb, appeared before the Commons’ standing committee on agriculture […] Read more

Parking lot signage outside an advance polling station in Winnipeg’s Tuxedo Industrial area on Sept. 12, 2021. (Dave Bedard photo)

Federal agriculture minister leading on election night

CPC, NDP ag critics prevail; BQ critic in tight race

Canada’s incumbent agriculture minister was among the MPs expected to hold onto their seats in Monday’s snap federal election, in which Justin Trudeau’s Liberals return with a second minority government. As of Tuesday morning just after midnight CT, Marie-Claude Bibeau was leading in her Sherbrooke, Que.-area riding of Compton-Stanstead by a spread of over 3,300 […] Read more


Canada/U.S. border signage in downtown Detroit. (RiverNorthPhotography/Getty Images)

Trudeau wants CUSMA deal ratified quickly

Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday urged legislators to quickly approve a new continental trade pact but the main opposition party said it wanted to study the deal, indicating the ratification process could drag on. Canada is the only one of the three signatories not to have formally blessed the […] Read more

(Eyfoto/iStock/Getty Images)

U.S. House passes CUSMA

Washington | Reuters — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday backed a new trade agreement with neighbouring Mexico and Canada in a 385-41 bipartisan vote, sending the NAFTA replacement measure to the Senate for consideration early in 2020. Democrats, who control the House, approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA) more than a year after […] Read more


Neil Ellis, shown here speaking in Belleville, Ont. in December 2018, is the new parliamentary secretary to Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. (NEllis.liberal.ca)

Central Ontario MP named parliamentary ag secretary

A former Belleville, Ont. mayor will now play a backup role to the federal agriculture minister in the House of Commons. Neil Ellis, the Liberal MP for the Bay of Quinte constituency in central Ontario since 2015, was named Thursday as parliamentary secretary for the minister of agriculture and agri-food, Marie-Claude Bibeau. Ellis was a […] Read more






John Barlow in July 2015. (JohnBarlowMP.ca)

Consultations close on tax planning proposals

Calls from farm groups and federal opposition politicians for further consultations on a proposed overhaul of the private corporation tax system have been shut down in the House of Commons. A motion Tuesday from Ontario Tory MP Pierre Poilievre, vice-chair of the Commons finance committee, calling for consultations to continue beyond their Monday deadline through […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

No emergency debate on CWB sale

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