By Alice McFarlane

Agriculture Roundup for Monday February 22, 2021

Feb 22, 2021 | 9:39 AM

MELFORT, Sask. — The executive director of Alberta Pork said farmers are on pins and needles waiting to find out when Olymel’s Red Deer plant will reopen.

Olymel indefinitely closed the hog slaughtering, cutting and deboning operation last week due to a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected hundreds of workers.

Darcy Fitzgerald said producers can hold their ready-for-slaughter pigs for about two weeks, so he is hoping the plant is reopened soon.

He said his group is in talks with the federal government about aid to cover costs such as extra feed and transport.

The company estimates there is a backlog of about 80,000 to 90,000 animals.

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Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is urging Members of Parliament to support Bill C-206.

It would amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act and provide exemption from the federal carbon tax for qualifying farming fuels to include natural gas and propane.

CFIB vice president Marilyn Braun-Pollon said certain exemptions already apply to greenhouses so it makes sense to exempt all farms.

“Bill C-206 is important because it provides a real and meaningful way to help farmers. While the federal carbon tax currently exempts most gasoline and diesel fuels for on-farm use, we know farmers are facing huge cost increases in the years ahead on natural gas and propane to dry grain and heat barns,” Braun-Pollon said in a news release.

On average, farmers estimated they paid almost $14,000 in federal carbon taxes in the first year it applied to them when the carbon tax was $20 per tonne, according to a CFIB survey.

The federal carbon tax is scheduled to rise to $170 per tonne by 2030.

Braun-Pollon said that translates into a 467 per cent increase in ten years.

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A registered dietitian working in the food industry in Saskatchewan is one of 23 people named to the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council.

Heather Deck is currently employed with Three Farmers Foods in Saskatoon.

The council includes representatives from the agriculture and food sector and includes health professionals, academics and non-profit groups.

The group will advise Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on food-related issues.

The council will hold its first meeting Mar. 4.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF