Insights and Stories of Rod Nickel

Supply management on table in EU talks, negotiator says

Nov. 27, 2011 at 10:25 am CST

Canada is willing to talk about its protected farm industries in free trade negotiations with the European Union, but its goal is to keep its protectionist mechanism, supply management, in place, the country’s chief agriculture negotiator said Wednesday. The Conservative government, sensitive to sentiment in vote-rich Eastern Canada, has long […]

Cargill considering a 2012 Prairie wheat pool

Nov. 25, 2011 at 7:29 pm CST

By Rod Nickel

CWB supporters take to Parliament Hill

Nov. 15, 2011 at 7:48 pm CST

By Rod Nickel

CWB bill clears second reading in Commons

Oct. 25, 2011 at 5:56 pm CDT

By Rod Nickel

Sask. won’t ban canola from fields with clubroot

Oct. 7, 2011 at 12:46 pm CDT

By Rod Nickel

Canadian crops approved for U.S. biodiesel

Sep. 29, 2011 at 4:42 pm CDT

The U.S. federal Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of Canadian crops such as canola and corn in U.S. biofuels Thursday, in a move that lifted Canadian canola prices and may help the U.S. meet its ambitious targets for biofuels. The EPA’s designation of Canadian crops as a renewable biomass […]

By Rod Nickel

Prairies to grow more wheat, barley: CWB

Aug. 29, 2011 at 5:28 pm CDT

The Canadian Wheat Board raised its 2011-12 outlook for wheat and barley on Friday, as a warm, dry summer looks to produce bigger harvests than a year ago. Spring floods left an estimated six million acres unplanted across the Prairies, but a hot summer with timely rains has helped crops […]

By Rod Nickel

Wheat board asks Ottawa to pay shutdown costs

Jul. 29, 2011 at 3:26 pm CDT

The Canadian Wheat Board has asked the federal government to pay “hundreds of millions of dollars” in penalties for cancelled grain contracts and other expenses that it says would arise if it shuts down next year when its marketing monopoly ends. If Ottawa removes the board’s monopoly to buy and […]

By Rod Nickel

Ottawa eyes regulating access to grain handlers

Jul. 8, 2011 at 4:35 pm CDT

The federal government is considering a request by the Canadian Wheat Board for regulated access to private grain handlers once the board loses its monopoly, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Friday — but he added that such access may not be enforceable. Canada’s Conservative government, which holds a majority of […]

By Rod Nickel

Government may fund CWB’s move to open market

Jun. 30, 2011 at 10:41 am CDT

The Canadian government would consider giving the Canadian Wheat Board short-term capital to help it adjust to an open market once Ottawa removes its grain monopoly, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said Wednesday. Ritz, speaking to reporters in Winnipeg, said funding would depend on the board presenting a suitable business plan. […]

By Rod Nickel