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Originally published:

June 2018
Vol. 104 Issue 6

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Stories In This Edition

A Taste of Spring

Flooding wallops southern interior

Ottawa wires CAP cash

Minimum wage hike squeezes farm margins

Editorial: The new democracy

Back Forty: Horgan on receiving end of pipeline challenge

Viewpoint: BC has led country in national check-off support

New chair appointed to land commission

Richmond expands farmhouse provisions

Demand for land drives farmland values higher

Biosolids raise a stink with neighbours

Rising wine sales boost demand for red grapes

Game-changer on dividend splitting

Mushroom merger

Wildfire, flood review has First Nations focus

Sidebar: Snapshot of recommendations

Labour tops issues as hothouse growers meet

Growers on look-out for activists

Antimicrobial lockdown

Ag briefs: Island farmers on lookout for armyworm

Ag briefs: AgSafe elects new chair

Ag briefs: No flood of licences

Ag briefs: Direct delivery

Hops revival gains traction with feds

Wildfire top concern of grape growers

Sidebar: Preparing for fires in the Okanagan

Nuffield scholars

Two studies promise to ensure slaughter capacity

Sidebar: Consultation schedule

Oversight sought

Bumper crop of invasive weeds after wildfires

Elk sights have producers concerned

Guichon heads back to life on the ranch

Research: Grazing cattle the sustainable way

Farmers markets focus on cultivating trust

Veggie days open house

Co-ops offer values-based alternatives

Region focuses on boosting local food usage

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Growing opportunity

Garden City project breaks sustainable ground

Weevils pose challenges

Protecting pollinators key for crop yields

Wannabe: Keeping up with the times

Young farmers turn on, tune in and download

Woodshed: Kenneth has another go at the Massey

4-H BC thanks partners for their support

Jude’s Kitchen: Co-op food

 

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4 days ago

A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural Land Commission hosted in Langley Monday night regarding a proposal to include 305 acres controlled by the federal government in the Agricultural Land Reserve. More than 76,000 people have signed an online petition asking municipal and provincial governments to protect the land from development, and for the federal government to grant a long-term lease to the Heppells. Read more in this morning's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. conta.cc/3XYXw6k ... See MoreSee Less

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Your weekly farm news update

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The agricultural news source in British Columbia since 1915 January 25 2023 Surrey ALR inclusion cheered A standing-room only crowd of more than 250 people attended a public hearing the Agricultural L
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Mike Manion Pitt Meadows City Councillor

1 month ago

Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand this season and prices remain comparable to last year. But the number of tree farms has decreased dramatically over the past five years and the province will increasingly need to look elsewhere if it wants to meet local demand. More in this week's Farm News Update from Country Life in BC. ... See MoreSee Less

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Christmas trees in demand

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Christmas tree growers in BC are seeing strong demand, with high quality trees making it to market. “The market is good. We’ll probably outdo last year and last year was one of our best years…
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2 months ago

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall. ... See MoreSee Less

Another four poultry flocks in the Fraser Valley have tested positive for avian influenza over the weekend -- 15 in the last week alone. There are 60 farms currently under quarantine in BC, more than any other province in Canada and three times that of Alberta, which ranks second. Officials maintain the virus is being spread by dust and groundwater and not farm-to-farm transmission. No farms in the Interior have tested positive this fall.
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Avian influenza virus can be killed by chlorine at no higher a concentration than is present in drinking water, so unless farms are using untreated groundwater in their barns I don't see how it could be a source of transmission. www.researchgate.net/publication/5594208_Chlorine_Inactivation_of_Highly_Pathogenic_Avian_Influen...

2 months ago

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall. ... See MoreSee Less

In a surprise move, Lana Popham -- hailed at the recent BC Dairy Industry Conference as a key ally of the agriculture sector -- has been replaced by Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as part of a cabinet overhaul today by new BC premier David Eby. Popham will now oversee Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. The two ministers worked closely together following the atmospheric river events last fall.Image attachment
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Goes to show how far-removed our current government is from the agricultural sector. To put someone in this position who has no farming background is a slap in the face to all of our hard-working producers.

Going to be a heck of a learning curve. Helping the agricultural community recover from the biggest natural disasters in history, handling the avian influenza outbreak that is threatening our poultry industry, dealing with a crisis in meat processing, managing ongoing threats from climate change, supporting producers who are facing unprecedented inflation in an industry with very slim margins to begin with..... to name a few of the challenges our new Minister will have to face all with one of the lowest budgets of any ministry. I wish her the best of luck but I hope she's got a lot of support around her.

Best of wishes in your new position

Congrats to Pam, cool to see a Fraser Valley based ag minister but also so sad to see Lana reassigned . I have no doubt she will do an amazing job in her new role.

Will be missed by #meiernation

Bryce Rashleigh

Nooooooo!

Lana did a shit job and now we have a minister with no farming background at all. Aren’t we lucky..

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2 months ago

The scale of this year's avian flu outbreak now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004. An additional 13 commercial farms in the Fraser Valley have tested positive in the last week. To date, 49 commercial farms and 1.2 million birds have been impacted. CFIA is struggling to keep up with depopulation of sick birds. ... See MoreSee Less

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AI outbreak rivals 2004

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The scale of this year’s outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza now rivals the massive outbreak of 2004 that saw farms throughout the Fraser Valley depopulated. An additional 13 commercial…
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Commercial operations need to reevaluate their stocking densities and overall health and welfare of the animals within their systems if they are ever going to have a fighting chance against this virus.

Yup cause food shortage

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Minimum wage hike squeezes farm margins

Workers will have to work harder to pay for increase

June 1, 2018 bySean Hitrec

DELTA – Growers are taking a closer look at pay structures as minimum wage hikes take effect this month.

As promised during last spring’s election campaign, the BC NDP plan to raise the minimum wage to $15.20 an hour over the next four years. The first of four minimum wage increases took effect June 1, lifting the minimum wage to $12.65 an hour from $11.35. On January 1, 2019, all piece-rate minimums will jump 11.5%. Additional increases to the minimum piece rate are also on the table.

Different labour laws and lower costs in Mexico and the US keep fruit and vegetable prices in check at Canada’s supermarkets, but they also set the price for local farms. Combined with a new payroll tax replacing MSP premiums starting next year, rising labour costs are set to put fresh pressure on producers’ margins.

BC greenhouse growers are one group that has taken a hit from cost increases in the last few years.

“It’s impossible for our industry to pass these higher operating costs onto consumers except through market mechanisms that are beyond our control,” Peter Cummings told the BC Greenhouse Growers Association at its annual meeting in April.

Cummings, who stepped down as chair at the meeting, said carbon taxes along with minimum wage increases will be very difficult for the greenhouse industry to deal with.

“The farmers are the ones that get the shaft,” says Westcoast Vegetables Ltd. COO Ron Van Marrewyk.

His greenhouses in Delta pay workers incentive bonuses on top of wages to pick efficiently. Because of the minimum wage increase, he says his workers will receive smaller bonuses.

“Our incentive bonus is changing, too,” he says. “If you want that same type of bonus, we’re going to have to ask you to work faster.”

BC Federation of Labour president Irene Lanzinger, who for years has been pushing for a $15 minimum wage in BC, recognises the strain it puts on farm owners. However, she says just because other countries can charge less in Canada’s markets due to looser labour regulation, does not make it right for workers in Canada to live on poverty wages. She emphasizes that the minimum wage will remain below the poverty level until just below $15 per hour.

“We cannot participate in the race to the bottom,” she says. “It is still incumbent upon us to set minimum standards here for workers – employment standards that mean that workers are not exploited in British Columbia.”

Other greenhouses are going to absorb the cost directly into their profits.

“It comes from our bottom line. If the cost of labour goes up, there’s less profit, simple,” says Sunnyside Greenhouses Ltd. owner Jos Moerman. “For us, it’s so important to have the same people coming back every day and every year because they know what to do.”

Farms that pay workers a piece rate based on how much they pick have about a year longer to prepare.

In a letter to Country Life in BC, BC Minister of Labour Harry Bains clarified why the BC piece rate increase is lagging behind the minimum wage hike. Bains notes the Fair Wage Commission’s recommendation in April was a 15% increase to all piece rates as well as a requirement for all workers to make at least minimum wage starting this June.

“However, we recognized that this level of increase, particularly during the current growing season, would put undue strain on farmers. So we instead took a more measured and moderate approach – with an 11.5% increase to piece rates as of January 1, 2019 to give farmers more time to adjust,” he says. “And because the commission also noted in their report that there were significant information gaps on the piece rate system, we went back to the commission asking that further study be done with the help of a subject-matter expert so that we can fully understand the complexities of this unique and 40-year-old system before making fundamental changes to how it functions.”

Piece-rate pay systems are common in the production of fruit and berries. BC Fruit Growers’ Association general manager Glen Lucas says his members are in a similar situation to greenhouses, with most prices set by imported product. However, they are relieved the minimum wage jump is not happening all at once and the piece-rate hike isn’t until January.

“We’re very pleased that the government said they would take a second look at the Fair Wage Commission, and recognised that the impacts might be a lot broader than the narrow scope that the Fair Wage Commission was looking at,” he says.

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