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 …
Marie-Claude Bibeau
Livestock health in spotlight
The health of Canada’s livestock took centre stage as federal, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture emerged from their annual meeting in Fredericton last week. During the closing press conference where ministers summarized their work, federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the establishment of a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine bank. The most recent federal budget …
Province files AgriRecovery request
The province has asked Ottawa to support an AgriRecovery program for the province’s beef sector, days after representatives of the province’s grape and wine sector asked agriculture minister Pam Alexis for similar support in response to last December’s devastating freeze event that killed a third of their vineyards. “I have spoken with federal minister [Marie-Claude] …
Bilateral agreement signed
BC will see an additional $29 million over five years from the federal government when the new agricultural policy framework debuts April 1. A new bilateral agreement between the provincial and federal governments was announced March 15 during federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau’s visit to the province. The bilateral agreement covers funding for cost-shared programs …
National celebration of agriculture
A national initiative designed to celebrate Canada’s food producers marks its seventh year today. Canada’s Agriculture Day, February 15, was initiated in 2017 by the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity, which also leads the online forum Agriculture More Than Ever. Designed to celebrate Canadian agriculture, food and everyone who works in the industry, the national …
Ministers discuss avian influenza
The appointment last week of rookie Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis as agriculture minister came amid a deepening outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in her home region of the Fraser Valley. The disease didn’t merit a reference in Alexis’ mandate letter from the premier but it was one of the first orders of business she …