Alberta
Prairie farmers hope for ‘normal’ season after volatile couple of years

CALGARY — Third-generation farmer Greg Sears is more than ready for a crop year without any curve balls in it.
In 2021, farmers were thrown a big one in the form of the severe drought that withered crops across Western Canada, including on Sears’ farm just north of Grande Prairie, Alta.
Then last year — even as the war in Ukraine drove grain and oilseed prices to record highs — inflationary pressures led to dramatic spikes in the cost of everything from fertilizer to fuel to tractor tires, leading some in the industry to dub 2022 as the most expensive crop year in history.
“Roller coaster ride, is a good way to describe it,” said Sears, of the volatility that has affected Canadian agriculture in the last 24 months.
“I’m kind of hoping (2023) will be, for what it amounts to, a normal year.”
Sears made the comments in a recent interview from his farm, where the weather has only recently changed to what he describes as “spring-ish” conditions.
While it will likely still be a few weeks before his fields dry up enough to start seeding his wheat, barley and canola, Sears said he feels a mix of hope and “nervous anticipation.”
On one hand, crop prices remain high from a historical perspective — though not as high as last year — and Canadian farmers are eager to meet the growing global demand for food.
“Most indications suggest farmers are going to hit the fields hard this year, with planted acreage expected to be a near record,” Edward Jones analyst Steve Hansen wrote in a recent research note, in which he suggested that if everything goes well, Canadian farmers could deliver a “Top 5 harvest” this fall.
But the memory of 2021’s record-breaking heat and drought in Western Canada weighs on many farmers who experienced it.
“We used to have a certain expectation for what our worst-case scenario was, and 2021 really reset that limit,” Sears said.
“We were affected as much as anybody. It wasn’t a very good scene for most people in our area.”
While 2021 was the worst one, western farmers have suffered through multiple drier-than-average growing seasons in the past decade.
And as of the end of February, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s drought monitor map shows vast swathes of B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan as being “abnormally dry” or already in a drought condition.
That’s a worry, Sears said.
“We haven’t really had good solid rains to build up the subsoil moisture again,” he added.
“And we didn’t get the big, big snows that we typically get in February or March. It was pretty sparse.”
Another concern is inflation, which Farm Credit Canada chief economist J.P Gervais said could impact farm profitability this year. While fertilizer and diesel costs have come down somewhat from last year, they remain historically high. And interest rates are much higher than they were at this point in 2022, which will be an issue for some farmers.
“The financial health of some operations depends on ‘do you own your land, and how much interest payments do you have to pay on that land?’” Gervais said.
“Certainly a concern for producers is that input costs are going to be very high this year overall,” said Bill Prybylski, who farms near the city of Yorkton in southeast Saskatchewan.
But Prybylski, who is heading into his 41st year of farming, said he believes most producers in his area are optimistic in spite of the risks.
“I think we’re looking at having a pretty start to the crop year here,” he said.
“But obviously a lot can happen between now and harvest.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2023.
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
Alberta
The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors
CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?
Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.
We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.
There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.
CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?
Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.
The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.
CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?
Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.
We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.
CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?
Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.
We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.
2025 Federal Election
Next federal government should recognize Alberta’s important role in the federation

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
With the tariff war continuing and the federal election underway, Canadians should understand what the last federal government seemingly did not—a strong Alberta makes for a stronger Canada.
And yet, current federal policies disproportionately and negatively impact the province. The list includes Bill C-69 (which imposes complex, uncertain and onerous review requirements on major energy projects), Bill C-48 (which bans large oil tankers off British Columbia’s northern coast and limits access to Asian markets), an arbitrary cap on oil and gas emissions, numerous other “net-zero” targets, and so on.
Meanwhile, Albertans contribute significantly more to federal revenues and national programs than they receive back in spending on transfers and programs including the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) because Alberta has relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes and a younger population.
For instance, since 1976 Alberta’s employment rate (the number of employed people as a share of the population 15 years of age and over) has averaged 67.4 per cent compared to 59.7 per cent in the rest of Canada, and annual market income (including employment and investment income) has exceeded that in the other provinces by $10,918 (on average).
As a result, Alberta’s total net contribution to federal finances (total federal taxes and payments paid by Albertans minus federal money spent or transferred to Albertans) was $244.6 billion from 2007 to 2022—more than five times as much as the net contribution from British Columbians or Ontarians. That’s a massive outsized contribution given Alberta’s population, which is smaller than B.C. and much smaller than Ontario.
Albertans’ net contribution to the CPP is particularly significant. From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 per cent (on average) of total CPP payments paid to retirees in Canada while retirees in the province received only 10.0 per cent of the payments. Albertans made a cumulative net contribution to the CPP (the difference between total CPP contributions made by Albertans and CPP benefits paid to retirees in Alberta) of $53.6 billion over the period—approximately six times greater than the net contribution of B.C., the only other net contributing province to the CPP. Indeed, only two of the nine provinces that participate in the CPP contribute more in payroll taxes to the program than their residents receive back in benefits.
So what would happen if Alberta withdrew from the CPP?
For starters, the basic CPP contribution rate of 9.9 per cent (typically deducted from our paycheques) for Canadians outside Alberta (excluding Quebec) would have to increase for the program to remain sustainable. For a new standalone plan in Alberta, the rate would likely be lower, with estimates ranging from 5.85 per cent to 8.2 per cent. In other words, based on these estimates, if Alberta withdrew from the CPP, Alberta workers could receive the same retirement benefits but at a lower cost (i.e. lower payroll tax) than other Canadians while the payroll tax would have to increase for the rest of the country while the benefits remained the same.
Finally, despite any claims to the contrary, according to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s demographic advantage, which fuels its outsized contribution to the CPP, will only widen in the years ahead. Alberta will likely maintain relatively high employment rates and continue to welcome workers from across Canada and around the world. And considering Alberta recorded the highest average inflation-adjusted economic growth in Canada since 1981, with Albertans’ inflation-adjusted market income exceeding the average of the other provinces every year since 1971, Albertans will likely continue to pay an outsized portion for the CPP. Of course, the idea for Alberta to withdraw from the CPP and create its own provincial plan isn’t new. In 2001, several notable public figures, including Stephen Harper, wrote the famous Alberta “firewall” letter suggesting the province should take control of its future after being marginalized by the federal government.
The next federal government—whoever that may be—should understand Alberta’s crucial role in the federation. For a stronger Canada, especially during uncertain times, Ottawa should support a strong Alberta including its energy industry.
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