Tony McQuail still in NDP leadership race

 Tony McQuail remains in the race for leader of the New Democratic Party after raising the needed $25,000 to meet the party’s requirements for candidates.

The next hurdle is another $33,000 by Jan. 28.

McQuail is an ecological farmer from Lucknow who has used horses instead of diesel-guzzling motors and who once served as executive assistant to former Ontario Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan.

He said he is running because he wants to improve the quality of life so every Canadian has the basic needs for water, food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and education.

 His vision is a caring, and compassionate country, both for its residents at home and to the broader world community.

"People are starting to understand that the economy has been designed to concentrate wealth into fewer and fewer hands. That's not working out very well for us as a Canadian society, and we need to develop a more distributive economy."

McQuail would like to see the federal government work with provinces, municipalities, housing cooperatives and housing non-profits to build affordable and inclusive ecological housing.

He said it's time to ensure that one full time job can cover the basic cost of living with a fair tax system and a universal basic income.

"We need to start really looking at regeneration, and how do we heal the damage that we've done to our life support system, the planet earth," he said.

He also wants electoral reform so there is proportional representation, not first-past-the-post on an individual riding basis. Under a proportionate system, some of the politicians chosen would reflect the percentages of votes for qualified parties on a nation-wide basis.

The NDP leadership convention will be in Winnipeg in March.

Farmers Union condemns agriculture cuts

 

 

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has condemned the federal cuts of about 675 staff and seven research facilities.

The cuts mean “Canada will be foreclosing on the discovery, problem-solving, and knowledge-base that would have been created by these institutions, leaving us more vulnerable with fewer options,” the NFU said in a news release.

Policy vice-president Phil Mount said “we need more investment, not less, in our public research institutions and personnel. The planned cuts would remove about $154 million from AAFC’s annual budget, but this is a false economy. 

“Cutting our capacity to address known and emerging agriculture problems will be far more costly. For just one example, agricultural economist Dr. Richard Gray has shown that there is a $35 return to farmers and the public for every dollar invested in public plant breeding.”

The NFU also noted that farmers have partnered with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) by putting tens of millions of check-off dollars into these research projects, as has the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) which allocates money indirectly contributed by farmers.

 

“Closing these AAFC facilities will make it that much harder to find institutions with the capacity to utilize these funds,” said Terry Boehm, NFU representative on the WGRF.

President Jenn Pfenning of New Hamburg, ONt., said “cutting the Organic and Regenerative Research Program at the Swift Current Research Centre, the sustainable livestock programs at Lacombe and the Nappan Research Farm, along with the agro-ecosystem resilience research at Quebec City, weakens Canada’s ability to deal with climate change impacts and biodiversity loss. 

“Research is needed to develop the best kinds of solutions that will be cost-effective for farmers and help us strengthen our food sovereignty.”

By comparison, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Keith Currie withheld criticism and said seeking efficiencies is understandable.

He said farmers ”scratch our heads over some of the AAFC research projects.

CFIA suspends shipper’s licence

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the licence of 7N3JGLG8 of 9259-8796 Québec Inc.

According to online information, it’s a water transport company.

Two added to Species at Risk board

 Two people have been appointed to three-year terms on the Species at Risk advisory committee.

Dr. Ashley Thomson  of Thunder Bay has been re-appointed vice-chair. She is an associate professor in the faculty of Natural Resources Management at Lakehead University and a registered professional forester in Ontario. She specializes in forest and wildlife genetics, with research focused on population and conservation genomics of boreal species such as woodland caribou and black spruce.

Megan Thompson, also of Thunder Bay, is a new appointee.

She is an aquatic researcher at Thompson Aquatic Consulting.

The committee's recommendations might call for farm management practices to protect species' habitat.

Interest rates may decline says FCC economist

Interest rates may decline again this year, Krishen Rangasamy, principal economist with FCC, said at its 2026 Economic Outlook.

“I understand that what we’re saying here is quite different from consensus on interest rates, because most forecasters are predicting either no change to the overnight rate or even an increase later this year,” he said.

“That may well be the right forecast if the economy picks up materially. But … we think economic growth will weaken this year and  if we’re correct about that, additional stimulus by the central bank should not be ruled out.”

He expects U.S. tariffs to remain high and said Canadians should do more to take advantage of trade agreements with countries other than the United States.

He also said some Canadians are not taking advantage of tariff-free status contained in the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement and are paying a Trump-announced tariff on expots to the U.S.

He said it’s due to confusion over rules of origin requirements.

“Remember that the majority of our exports to the U.S. is tariff-free thanks to CUSMA, and yet, outside of the energy sector, our exporters have really struggled since the U.S. tariffs were imposed,” he said.

“Over the last eight years (EU) exports grew by 40 per cent to Canada. Our exports to the European Union have barely budged over that eight-year period,” he said. “So we’re struggling to even take advantage of the trade deals we’ve got already.”

Metro sales up, profits down

Metro Inc., Canada’s third-largest supermarket business, reported a 3.3 per cent increase in sales, but a 12.8 per cent decline in net revenues last year.

Profits took a hit because its frozen foods distribution centre in Toronto was down for several months.

The company said its prices increased less than the national five per cent food inflation rate last year, but did say what its percentage increase was.

When it posted its financials for the year, it also announced an increase in dividends for shareholders.   

                  

 

Farmers’ Market set a record

 

The St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market had a record 1.6 million visitors last year, about 30 per cent more than the year before.

Michele Saran, the chief executive officer of Explore Waterloo Region, said tourism to the Waterloo Region was up as many Canadians boycotted the United States because they don’t like U.S. President Donald Trump and the tariffs he imposed on Canadian exporters.

She said final numbers are not yet confirmed, but the region saw an increase in tourists from the year before with a vast majority of people coming from the Toronto area as well as southern and southwestern Ontario

.She said in 2024, there were about five million visitors to the region who spent about $829 million. She said last year’s final tallies from the organization’s 500 members are not yet in, but there were significant increases for the first three quarters of the year.

Joanna Loebach, the general manager of the St. Jacobs Market District, said  "it was a crazy year for us for sure. Our best year on record. Our attendance for the year was at 1.6 million. For us, that represents a 30 per cent growth over 2024."

Saran and Loebach made their comments on CBC Radio in Kitchener.