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When a court awarded an Olds rancher $176,800 this month, it served notice that petroleum producers should watch out when they acquire other firms. 'Due diligence must include reviewing a [...]

First, it was British beef. Now, warns the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), if it is Belgian, it is banned. On June 3 Canada joined the U.S. and the European [...]

The corporate squabbling over the carcass of Canadian Fracmaster Ltd. signals the recovery of the oilfield service sector, says Peter Linder, an energy analyst with CIBC Wood Gundy. In fact, [...]

Last spring, Jaws Technologies Inc. issued an unprecedented US$5-million defiance, backed by a bond, to the world's code crackers. 'We challenged anyone anywhere to break an encoded message we posted [...]

Chevron Canada Resources has made a potential 'elephant' natural gas find in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories. Its K-29 well, 15 miles northwest of Fort Liard, has tapped [...]

For almost a century, drillers have probed the Turner Valley district, the original heart of the Alberta oilpatch. Hundreds of wellsites dot the rolling green foothills, so Startech Energy Inc. [...]

U.S. cattlemen, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, are declaring war on Alberta's beef industry. 'The Americans had a few very difficult years,' explains Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian [...]

Four thousand field trials with genetically engineered plants have been conducted since 1988, says Health Canada. Three dozen--including new breeds of canola, corn, potatoes, tomatoes and squash--are cleared for sale, [...]

For millennia, snow geese summered in the Hudson Bay lowlands of the Arctic, breeding in harmony with Mother Nature. Earlier in this century, however, the migratory white-plumed birds were hunted [...]

The average car lover blessed with an elephant-choking bankroll wants classic, sleek and slightly sassy. But what is a rich guy to do when--longing for a bit of conspicuous consumption [...]

Many rural residents 'strongly believe that their health and that of their families is being harmed' by the oilpatch, asserts the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development. Last week, the Drayton [...]

Canadian Pacific Railway officials were all smiles February 15 as they donated 1,003 miles of abandoned right-of-way to the Trans Canada Trail Project. Next day, however, the mood was grimmer [...]

Insurance companies are wilting a trifle over the prospect of Viagra being declared a medical remedy. The drug, developed by Pfizer Inc., relieves impotence in many males by enhancing the [...]

When drillsites or pipeline right-of-ways are cleared, topsoil is removed. Environmental regulations dictate that it must be replaced later so fertility is unimpaired, a factor of particular importance with farmland. [...]

For decades, a stint on a drilling rig or seismic survey crew was a routine manhood rite for prairie farmboys. Dwayne Peters, senior vice-president of Precision Drilling Corp., well remembers [...]

With world-class technology in one hand and the Old Testament in the other, Valiant Resources Ltd. of Calgary is wildcatting in Israel. 'We'll drill three wells this year, hopefully starting [...]

An English peasant of the 14th century needed many years of practice to turn his longbow accurately against an armoured French knight. Where a longbowman had to exert several hundred [...]

Alberta hog farmers have taken their worst hit in four decades. 'During 1998, producers lost $43 million in equity,' reports Roger Charbonneau, chairman of the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corp. [...]

Why do they bury farmers just 12 inches underground?' asks a joke now current in Calgary. 'So they can still keep a hand out,' goes the reply. The family farm, [...]

The Canada-U.S. agricultural trade agreement signed on December 4 will not end blockades of Canadian grain by U.S. farmers, says Clifton Foster. 'It doesn't deal with state trading enterprises like [...]

Two Calgarians, entrepreneurial pioneers of the world's richest uranium play, have fallen on hard times. But Frank Brown, 74, and his brother Clive, 81, do not blame their plight on [...]

A computer glitch has forced accounting firm KPMG and Ralph Goodale, minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), to order a recount in the recent election of 10 board [...]

Several farmers were planning last week to give away butchered, government-inspected pork in downtown Camrose on December 5. Garret Beekman, who organized the protest, explains, 'The hogs weren't worth anything [...]

On November 4, a five-mile convoy of grain trucks, fertilizer tankers and pickups wound through North Battleford, Sask. The parade of 500 protesters, drawn from the three prairie provinces, demanded [...]

Last fall, eight prairie farmers signed delivery contracts with Palliser Grain Co. To gain tax benefits and a five-cent-a-bushel premium, the farmers opted for deferred payment (essentially a post-dated cheque). [...]

Rob Valentine, like many a red-blooded boy, passionately loved knights in shining armour. 'When I was five, I used one of my mother's butcher knives as a sword. My shield [...]

Pork producers are in serious financial trouble, a problem that Red Deer hog operator Ed Larkcom blames largely on Alberta Agriculture and free trade. 'Farmers are getting $30 to $40 [...]

On August 20, John and Karen Colford took a break from harvesting to eat a quick supper in the field. The couple farms just southeast of Myrnam, 125 miles east [...]

United Grain Growers (UGG) has launched a 'Street Malt Barley Program' at more than 40 Prairie locations. UGG marketing manager Russell Jeffrey explains, 'The program eliminates the producer's risk of [...]

UGG says the proceeds should go to prairie roads, not to the federal treasury The federal government has proposed the sale of its 13,000 grain-hauling railway hopper cars, currently worth [...]

A triple whammy of ugly economic news alarmed westerners last week. First, a report compiled by Data Research Inc. (DRI) for five federal departments indicated that Ottawa's carbon dioxide policies [...]

Making their home in a kidney-shaped marsh at the Calgary Zoo are Cleopatra and Borden, the first whooping cranes ever exhibited in Canada. Communications director Clare Cotton says the two [...]

In about a decade, Canada's cattle production has more than doubled to 2.2 million head a year. The County of Lethbridge, midway between northern grain supplies and the voracious American [...]

Working as a teenaged roustabout in Petro-Canada's Wildcat Hills gas plant, John Ellis dreamed of making it big overseas. After the slim youngster graduated from Cochrane High School in 1976, [...]

An open battle for prestige and market share is being waged between chartered accountants (CAs) and Alberta's 2,000 certified general accountants (CGAs), long deemed the more junior players in the [...]

Despite problems with heavy oil, western Canada is poised for its second-best year ever in terms of drilling activity. Maybe. 'So far, we're right on schedule for 13,500 wells this [...]

From a distance, fields along Highway 2 north of Airdrie appeared to spout plumes of smoke last week, but it was actually dust spiralling up behind tractors ploughing thirsty fields. [...]

Since Fletcher's Fine Foods Ltd. in Red Deer was struck by its workers on May 4, the pork packing plant has come to resemble the near-by federal prison at Bowden. [...]

Art Robinson normally confines himself to biochemical research at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, but his career has taken a political turn in recent months. Mr. Robinson spearheads [...]

Rick Buckingham co-founded Star Choice Communications Inc., a satellite television service whose shares have moved from an initial 32 cents in 1993 to $3.30 currently on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. [...]

No new endangered species law is expected to reach Parliament until next fall at the earliest. An Alberta coalition, the Land and Resources Partnership (LRP), is taking advantage of the [...]

Alberta's organic farmers are equally incensed by the CWB's legendary intransigence. Health-conscious Californians and Japanese are paying premiums of up to 50% for their organically-grown grains and beans. But Canadian [...]

Scoular Canada has no elevators, no trucks of its own, no cozy relationship with the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), and a grand total of four full-time employees in its Calgary [...]

The Alberta Wheat Pool (AWP) is moving east, in direct response to the 1997 decision by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to construct six inland grain terminals in Alberta. 'One way [...]