Stamp prices rise for the third time in five years amid financial woes for Canada Post
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Canada's farm fields are in the midst of a transformation.
As the country rapidly warms from human-caused climate change, farmers are being pushed to reconsider conventional wisdom about what can and can't survive in this northern climate.
Crops are getting planted later in the year than ever as killer winter frost delays its arrival in Ontario. Berries in British Columbia devastated by recent climate-driven extreme heat and floods are moving into the controlled climates of vertical farms.
A spice commonly found in India is finding a new home in the Maritimes. Tropical fruits are springing from a greenhouse on the Prairies.
In fields and greenhouses, farmers are also seeding solutions to the generational challenge of climate change. Their success will not only bear on Canada's agricultural sector, but its dinner table.
Here is a look at some of the ways climate change is changing Canadian agriculture:
Saffron, a spice so expensive that it has been dubbed red gold, is traditionally grown in Iran, India, Afghanistan and Spain, among a handful of countries.
But when Matthew Roy moved from New Hampshire to begin farming in Nova Scotia in 2020, he identified saffron as a promising crop, in part because of the changing climate and saffron's short growing season.
The owner of Coastal Grove Farm began planting the crocus bulbs that yield saffron on his property in Upper Port La Tour, N.S., that August. By mid-November, the 15,000 bulbs had yielded about 78 grams of the spice.
"We knew that it is going to be getting warmer here in Nova Scotia," Roy said in an interview. "And we figured that we could bring in two new crops to the province, the first one being tea and the second one being saffron."
In his second year, Roy harvested 172 grams of saffron. In 2022, it was 342 grams. But last year it fell to 66 grams, which Roy said could be because of a wet summer. One hundred grams of the spice fetches about $600, so Roy is not yet getting rich off saffron, but he is optimistic that production will increase.
Margaret Skinner, a research professor at the University of Vermont, studies the plant and has been working with Roy on his saffron farm. While warming temperatures make Nova Scotia more hospitable for saffron, other climate effects such as drought and flooding could be harmful, she said.
Bashir Ahmad Allie, head of the saffron research station at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in India, is not surprised that parts of Canada are able to cultivate saffron, considering how climate is changing across the globe. The spice is now grown in parts of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.
Allie noted that the climate change that has made saffron cultivation viable in Canada has had the opposite effect in the regions of India where it is grown. Jammu and Kashmir in India has been experiencing erratic temperatures, floods, heat waves and snow, which have caused "havoc" for saffron producers in the region, he said.
- By Hina Alam in Fredericton.
___
In Ontario, global warming has delayed the arrival of so-called "killing frost" and has allowed some farmers to explore new crops that can outlive the winter season.
Jennifer Doelman says on her farm in Renfrew County, located near the Ottawa River, she has been planting canola during the colder months, in addition to growing typical springtime canola.
"Winter canola was never something we could dream of," says Doelman, who is also a bee-keeper.
"And we're growing now, as a response to climate change, winter canola ... because our killing frost isn't happening until November."
Doelman says the frost used to appear in October, when temperatures dropped below 0 C for several hours at a time and killed newly planted crops.
But she hasn't seen the frost appear until November for the last three years.
Doelman says that delay has given farmers the opportunity to plant canola in September, immediately after the typical harvest season for spring canola. The winter crop is then able to grow strong enough to withstand the frost when it arrives in November.
"Even though they're planted in September, they get big enough to be able to overwinter under the snow," she says.
Winter canola is seen in an undated handout photo at an Ontario farm. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jennifer Doelman
She says the winter canola is harvested in July and is used for canola oil and biodiesel.
"What's left over once they crush it is really, really high-quality livestock feed," she said.
Being able to grow crops during the winter season has helped with balance for farmers, who usually have a "mad dash" during the typical five-month summer and spring season to harvest in the fall, Doelman says.
A winter crop "spreads out your workload, it spreads out your risk," she says.
- By Fakiha Baig in Toronto.
___
By the time fresh blueberries hit Canadian grocery shelves in the winter, they may already be a month old after coming from countries such as Mexico and Peru.
A team of researchers from Simon Fraser University aims to give consumers a fresh, sustainable, locally grown option with a project that demonstrates how blueberries can be grown indoors during the winter in British Columbia.
Biological sciences professor Jim Mattsson is leading the research. He says the berries grown in a tightly controlled indoor environment are fresher and taste better than their imported counterparts. The process uses less water, keeps pesticide use to a minimum, and the indoor crops boast a smaller carbon footprint, he adds.
Canada's typical blueberry season runs from July to September, with consumers relying on imports for non-frozen berries throughout the winter.
In B.C., the industry has been grappling with climate-related challenges in recent years, including heat waves, cold snaps, and widespread flooding in 2021.
Mattsson says growing indoors avoids such stressors, while the temperature and light can be controlled to prevent the plants from entering dormancy each winter.
"It has been shown that you can get more than one harvest per year," he says." You can get, on the same plants, two harvests per year."
The process is an example of "vertical farming," where plants are positioned in rows on shelves stacked on top of each other, Mattsson says.
Water and nutrients may be recycled for further use, he says, and recent technological advancements allow the recycling of heat from LED lighting.
The researchers are currently working with B.C.-based agritech company BeriTech Inc. on the first round of growth trials. After that, Mattsson says they will compete for a $5-million grant to build a prototype facility and scale the project up.
The work also involves exploring how berries grown indoors in Canada can compete with imports from an economic perspective, he says.
Mattsson adds that BeriTech is interested in exploring how the research on blueberries could be applied to other crops, such as raspberries and blackberries.
- By Brenna Owen in Burnaby, B.C.
___
Dean Sopher says he's pessimistic about the world's future.
It's why he bought land near Saskatoon and built his own homestead, growing crops and raising livestock to meet his family's needs.
But Sopher isn't gardening typical Prairie produce. He's growing bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, passion fruit, guava and figs in a greenhouse he built.
"It's real food, eating fresh," Sopher said in an interview on his farm near Saskatchewan's largest city.
Concerned about worsening food quality and inflation, Sopher says he built his greenhouse about three years ago and harvested his first banana crop in December. He says the roughly $60,000 greenhouse was designed to optimize the heat and light from the sun.
"Once you have the structure properly designed, insulated, and well built, you can grow pretty much anything here," he said.
While Sopher has moved the needle on what can grow on the Prairies, researchers say it's unlikely tropical fruits will sprout from open fields in the future as the climate changes.
However, they say farmers may instead grow other types of grains and legumes, such as corn and soybeans, in regions where that's currently not feasible.
In a scientific literature review, researchers at the University of Alberta found the Prairies have become hotter and drier over the last 120 years. There has also been less snowfall and more disruptive weather, the researchers found.
While it could mean more corn and soy in some areas, higher temperatures may cause some pests to flourish and create additional challenges to producers.
Associate professor Emmanuel Mapfumo at Concordia University of Edmonton said farmers are resilient and will continue to adapt.
Some strategies include zero tillage, rotating crops, growing varieties that are drought resistant and changing seeding rates.
"There's no one solution," he said.
- By Jeremy Simes in Saskatoon.
___
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2024.
Canada Post is increasing stamp prices for the third time since 2019, a move the Crown corporation says is a "reality" of its sales-based revenue structure.
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women in Winnipeg, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be tabling legislation on Monday aimed at countering foreign interference in Canada. Federal officials have scheduled a technical briefing on the incoming bill for Monday afternoon.
H5N1 or avian flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading among cattle in the United States, sparking concerns about 'pandemic potential' for humans. Now a health expert is urging Canada to scale up surveillance north of the border.
Polish prosecutors have discontinued an investigation into human skeletons found at a site where German dictator Adolf Hitler and other Nazi leaders spent time during the Second World War because the advanced state of decay made it impossible to determine the cause of death, a spokesman said Monday.
Italy's mafia rarely dirties its hands with blood these days. Extortion rackets have gone out of fashion and murders are largely frowned upon by the godfathers.
An Ontario MPP was asked again to leave the Ontario legislature on Monday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that was banned by the Speaker last month due to its political symbolism.
After his adopted parents died, Dave Rogers set out to learn more about his birth mother. DNA results and a little help from friendly strangers would put him on a path to a small town in England.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's hush money trial fined him US$1,000 on Monday for violating his gag order once again and sternly warned the former president that additional violations could result in jail time.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.