By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Wednesday October 14, 2020

Oct 14, 2020 | 9:46 AM

MELFORT, Sask. – BMO Bank of Montreal has expanded its agri-business banking team.

Senior economist Aaron Goertzen said this new group is a national team of agriculture banking specialists with backgrounds in agriculture and a deep understanding of local market challenges and opportunities.

He said producers continue to invest heavily in their operations.

“Over the past two decades, productivity in the agriculture sector has increased five times faster than in the Canadian economy as a whole and that trend shows little sign of letting up,” Goertzen said in a news release.

Goertzen said BMO has been supporting farmers and the agriculture industry for over 200 years and many of the bank’s first customers were farmers.

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Eight irrigation districts in southern Alberta will be getting an $815-million upgrade.

Premier Jason Kenney said the money will be used to modernize and build new irrigation infrastructure and increase water storage capacity.

The project includes $245 million from the province and $163 from the districts.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank is to provide a low interest, long-term loan of $407 million to the districts.

The province said it expects the project will create up to 1,300 construction jobs with another 6,800 jobs to follow.

Kenney said the expansion is long overdue for an area that is considered the agricultural engine of the province.

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Farmers and other agri-food businesses in Ontario can now apply for federal funding aimed at keeping workers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government says $11.6 million will help with improvements for Ontario farms such as building physical barriers for worker separation, upgrading HVAC systems, and improving hand-washing facilities

Agri-food workers, especially in the Windsor-Essex region, were hit hard by the pandemic’s first wave, with several outbreaks on farms.

The province says the agri-food sector supports more than 837,000 jobs in Ontario.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF