Alberta
Canada can play a big role in addressing growing food insecurity, Nutrien CEO says
TORONTO — Canada is poised to play a big role in global food production as climate change makes farming more difficult and the world’s food supply chain is rendered fragile by political and economic uncertainty, said Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz.
Seitz made the remarks in Toronto at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada.
He said climate change is redrawing the map of global food production and Canada has an opportunity to be a key player in addressing food insecurity.
The world faces a double-barrelled problem, said Seitz: “To feed a rapidly growing world, we’ll need to produce more food and we’ll need to do it sustainably.”
Nutrien is the world’s third-largest producer of nitrogen and the largest producer of potash, two key ingredients in commercial fertilizer.
The Saskatoon-based potash and fertilizer company has six potash mines in Saskatchewan with more than 20 million tonnes of capacity, as well as two large phosphate mines in the U.S.
In Canada and across the world, climate change is making farming, already an unpredictable business, even more volatile, Seitz said.
“Here at home in Canada, growers are experiencing wetter springs, hotter and drier summers, all of which constrains our irrigation and water and all those resources that we need to manage,” he said.
Seitz said farmers need support in the form of incentives so they can adopt technology and new practices in order to farm more sustainably. Risk is a major barrier for farmers, he said, who are dealing with increasing uncertainty and managing slim margins.
Seitz said he believes carbon capture is a key part of the climate solution.
In 2021, Nutrien began piloting a new project aimed at helping farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions, trap and store carbon, and measure improvements as well as facilitating the purchase and sale of carbon credits.
The pilot program is currently working on 750,000 acres across North America, Seitz said Wednesday.
The past year has been a tumultuous one for the agriculture business, and Nutrien has not been immune to the ups and downs.
Demand increased for Nutrien’s potash earlier in 2022 as a result of the war in Ukraine. Because of that boost, in March the company said it would ramp up production to meet the demand, with most of that additional volume expected to be produced in the second half of the year.
That ramp-up would mean more capital spending and more hiring at Nutrien’s Saskatchewan potash mines, the company said in May. However, as Nutrien saw sales slump in the latter half of its financial year, in February it announced it would delay increasing production.
Despite this, Nutrien’s earnings in 2022 doubled, which the company attributed mainly to higher selling prices resulting from global supply uncertainties as well as record retail performance.
And its production ramp-up, while pushed back, was far from scrapped. The company said while it had previously planned to increase annual potash production to 18 million tonnes by 2025, it would reach that milestone by 2026 instead.
Nutrien was created in 2018 as a result of a merger between PotashCorp of Saskatchewan and Calgary-based Agrium Inc.
— With files from Amanda Stephenson
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:NTR)
Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press
Alberta
Free Alberta Strategy petition demanding PM Trudeau fire Steven Guilbeault passes 13,000 signatures
News release from Free Alberta Strategy
Are you tired of watching elected officials flout the law and disregard public concerns with impunity?
Are you frustrated by a federal government that prioritizes arrogance over accountability?
If so, you’re not alone.
Over 13,000 people have signed our petition calling on Justin Trudeau to fire Steven Guilbeault.
Once one of Greenpeace’s most disruptive forces, Guilbeault has spent enough time in an orange jumpsuit to build up a reputation for deliberately ignoring both law enforcement and the courts.
Since then, his career has been marked by a troubling disregard for both legal boundaries and public sentiment.
In 2001, Guilbeault was found guilty of mischief for scaling the CN Tower in Toronto and displaying a banner.
He received a sentence of one year’s probation, was mandated to complete 100 hours of community service in Montreal, and was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.
The incident incurred approximately $50,000 in costs for the tower operators.
Shortly thereafter, Guilbeault orchestrated another audacious act, leading a Greenpeace team in a demonstration at the Calgary residence of then Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and his wife, Colleen.
They erected a banner, positioned ladders against the house, and ascended to the roof to install a solar panel.
The intrusion deeply unsettled Colleen Klein, who was alone at the time and feared a home invasion – she resorted to grabbing a broom for defense.
Despite his controversial background, Justin Trudeau’s decision to appoint Guilbeault as Minister of Environment and Climate Change raised eyebrows and elicited criticism.
Jason Kenney, then premier of Alberta, accurately predicted the consequences of Guilbeault assuming a significant role in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
“His own personal background and track record on these issues suggests someone who is more an absolutist than a pragmatist when it comes to finding solutions,” Kenney said.
It’s perhaps no surprise then that Guilbeault’s response to legal setbacks in his political career, such as the Supreme Court’s ruling on the unconstitutionality of his Impact Assessment Act, has been dismissive, indicating a stubborn adherence to his own agenda rather than a willingness to heed judicial guidance.
Instead of accepting that he was wrong and repealing the law, Guilbeault wants to pass minor amendments and pretend like the Supreme Court ruling never happened.
Worse, the amendments – buried 552 pages into a 686-page budget implementation bill – don’t fix the problem.
Guilbeault still has the power to control projects that fall under provincial jurisdiction.
Consequently, tensions between the federal and provincial governments have escalated, with Alberta poised to immediately challenge the amended legislation in court once again.
This charade is getting old.
This pattern of defiance and disregard for legal constraints has become wearisome, eroding public trust in the integrity of federal institutions.
The rotation of headlines proclaiming federal overreach and constitutional breaches underscores a troubling trend within the governing party, where arrogance appears to have supplanted prudent governance.
Guilbeault, with his checkered past and continued ignorance of the law since becoming Minister, are crippling public confidence.
A few months ago, we launched a petition calling on Justin Trudeau to see the light, and fire his most controversial Minister.
Since then, things have only gotten worse.
If you agree, and think Guilbeault should be fired, please sign our petition today:
Then, send this petition to your friends, family, and every Albertan so that they can sign too!
Regards,
The Free Alberta Strategy Team
Alberta
Fortis et Liber: Alberta’s Future in the Canadian Federation
From the C2C Journal
By Barry Cooper, professor of political science, University of Calgary
Canada’s western lands, wrote one prominent academic, became provinces “in the Roman sense” – acquired possessions that, once vanquished, were there to be exploited. Laurentian Canada regarded the hinterlands as existing primarily to serve the interests of the heartland. And the current holders of office in Ottawa often behave as if the Constitution’s federal-provincial distribution of powers is at best advisory, if it needs to be acknowledged at all. Reviewing this history, Barry Cooper places Alberta’s widely criticized Sovereignty Act in the context of the Prairie provinces’ long struggle for due constitutional recognition and the political equality of their citizens. Canada is a federation, notes Cooper. Provinces do have rights. Constitutions do mean something. And when they are no longer working, they can be changed.
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