New federal minister

What’s old is new again as Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet in what many say sets the stage for a general election.

Lawrence MacAulay was reappointed to the agriculture portfolio following a four-year stint as minister of veterans affairs and associate minister of national defence. He succeeds Marie-Claude Bibeau, who was transferred to be minister of national revenue.

MacAulay, a potato farmer before entering politics as MP for the riding of Cardigan, PEI, was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first choice for agriculture minister in 2015. He returns to that role as Ottawa pushes ahead with a sustainability agenda focused on reducing carbon emissions and heightening carbon sequestration on the nation’s farms.

Various farm organizations, including the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the national umbrella organization representing provincial farm groups including the BC Agriculture Council, have welcomed MacAulay’s appointment.

“We look forward to working with Minister MacAulay, whose experience and expertise as a former Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food will be an asset at pivotal time for Canadian agriculture,” CFA president Keith Currie said in a statement. “As this transition takes place, I would stress the importance of maintaining momentum and a continued focus on key issues, such as continued collaboration with CFA and farmers across Canada on the development of the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy.”

MacAulay’s mandate letter from Trudeau has not been released. Each minister’s mandate letter typically sets the priorities for their term in office, including the government’s agenda for their portfolios.

The cabinet shuffle also comes less than two years into the latest mandate for Justin Trudeau, who called an early election in 2021 only to be denied a majority government for the second time in a row. The previous election, in 2019, saw the Liberals lose the healthy majority they’d won in 2015 following successive Conservative governments under Stephen Harper.

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14 hours ago

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20 hours ago

Forty-six regions in BC are eligible to participate in the federal livestock tax deferral program, announced yesterday, more than anywhere else in the country. The program allows producers who downsize their breeding herds by 15% to defer reporting the proceeds until the following year, when they buy replacement stock. But after multiple years of drought, the BC beef herd is cruising 25-year lows and some producers are calling for more support to maintain and rebuild their herds. For more, see: [www.countrylifeinbc.com/bc-leads-livestock-tax-deferrals/]

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5 days ago

After weeks and weeks of no moisture, there's rain in Kelowna today. While much more moisture is needed over the coming weeks and months to reduce drought conditions and the air smells of wet campfire, the slow, steady rain is very welcome for fruit grower#BCAg#BCAg ... See MoreSee Less

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6 days ago

The first Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust Grassland Set-aside Variety Trial Field Day was held at Delta's family-owned Tecarte Farms, August 27. Co-owner Bill Bates and DFWT executive director Christine Schmalz welcomed more than 35 people to view seven acres planted to different grassland blends specifically chosen to rejuvenate the soil and support the farm's blueberries. For the Bates family, it was time to try something different following the decline of the field's blueberry bushes over the past several years. "We tried everything, and nothing worked," says Bates. The blueberries were removed in May and the grassland crops planted about a week later.

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Bessette Creek is the latest watershed hit with a temporary fish protection order this year as the province moves to protect returning Chinook salmon. A total of 131 surface and groundwater users must cease drawing water immediately, with forage producers, greenhouses and nurseries impacted. "Declining flows in Bessette Creek reached record lows in early July 2026 and have remained below the minimum level required to support fish population survival," says the province. Bessette producers have embraced voluntary cutbacks, scheduled irrigation and other measures to reduce water use, and are also waiting on funding to boost water storage infrastructure. They're the second group of producers hit with a provincial order this year. Salmon River irrigators were told to top watering earlier this month following a reprieve to address wildfire risk. Growers in both the Salmon River and Bessette watersheds are urging the province to support new water storage infrastructure in advance of next year.

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There is a problem... having lived in the salmon river ( silver creek ) area, I remember a fish biologist telling family members that salmon only "survive" in high iron content creeks, they do not "thrive".... salmon river ( silver creek ) is a very high iron content, would stain clothes brown when i would use bleach... So don't expect high salmon numbers off of that creek , even in ideal situations...

I just wish they would take an interest in CHASE CREEK....went bone dry...100% of trout abd other species died...smell was terrible from rotting fish. Understand this has happened many times in the past. Chase Irrigation District totally responsible for this disaster. Now fishermen are complaining about major drop in water levels at Pillar Lake.

They could not mismanage things worse than they have. It's impossible for them to. The fact that farmers that we need for our animals are now suffering the consequences our governments have not protected us from, is absolutely fucking wild.