Odds are the perfect storm in Alberta should end soon

Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse.

That’s the state of Alberta’s fortune these days.

With the well-known loss of hundreds of thousands of oil related jobs, and the inability to get a pipeline built to get our world-class oil supply to market, it’s easy to forget the woes of our renowned agricultural industry.

According to a recent report by Statistics Canada, a combination of drought, weather and global trade barriers produced the perfect storm causing farm incomes to drop severely in 2018. As a unit, the reported net income of Alberta farmers dropped some 68 per cent to $535 million. It was the greatest drop since 2006.

The troubles were not unique to Alberta, as every province in Canada except New Brunswick experienced a drop in agricultural wages last year. Alberta’s massive drop contributed to a nation-wide decline of 45 per cent, a full one-third caused by Alberta’s distress.

Weather-wise Alberta had it all in 2018, according to the report; a wet spring followed by an extended hot and dry spell which withered crops in the field, and then an early dump of rain and snow in the fall. Some areas of Alberta received less than one-quarter of their annual summer rainfall. . . . contd.

Read the rest in our July 10th edition.