By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Thursday June 11, 2020

Jun 11, 2020 | 10:27 AM

The federal government will not release the data it used to decide against exempting fuels used in grain dryers from the carbon tax.

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said her department analyzed information through the Agriculture Taxation Data Program to calculate the carbon tax applied to grain dryers would cost an individual between $210 and $819 per year.

She said it was at most 0.42 per cent of total operating costs, which is not high enough to warrant exempting grain dryers.

A spokesperson for Bibeau said the analysis will not be made public at this time, pointing instead to a two-year-old report that estimated the costs the carbon tax could add to farms.

Alberta Conservative MP John Barlow said his office has been flooded with bills submitted by farmers that he said show Bibeau’s estimates are ”completely out of touch.”

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Barlow said some farmers are showing bills in excess of $10,000 for the carbon tax.

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Fusarium headblight risk is increasing in northern regions.

A map supplied by Sask Wheat showed the northwest corner of the grainbelt, including Meadow Lake, is in the high category.

The moderate category includes North Battleford, Prince Albert, areas North of Saskatoon, Humboldt, Melfort, Tisdale Nipawin and Hudson Bay.

All areas to the South are low risk.

Sask Wheat said the map should not be taken as a stand-alone tool to make management decisions about fusarium head blight.

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The top doctor in Windsor-Essex said the region has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases among agri-food workers in recent days.

The medical health officer reported 38 additional workers tested positive for the virus.

On Tuesday, the health unit reported 34 new cases among workers.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed said more than 200 agri-food workers in the region have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Of those cases about 90 per cent are temporary foreign workers.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF