APAS Rural Connectivity Task Force Releases Final Report

Mar 31, 2021

The Agricultural Producers of Saskatchewan Rural Connectivity Task Force spent six months researching the issues around poor rural internet and cell service.

The report lists a total of 43 recommendations that fit into seven main categories.

Working Together - Supporting shared access to infrastructure and fair partnerships between service providers.

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen - Simplifying Canada’s regulatory structure for greater accountability, transparency, and efficiency.

The Importance of Smaller Internet Service Providers - Supporting competition within the industry to ensure smaller players can survive, thrive, and support universal internet access.

Optimizing Public Resources - Optimizing government funding and managing spectrum effectively.

Regaining and Retaining Canadian Excellence - Ensuring that Canada takes a leadership role to build long-term sustainability within our telecommunications industry and infrastructure.

Taking Control of the Saskatchewan Advantage - Leveraging our Crown Corporations to ensure that Saskatchewan plays a leadership role in achieving universal connectivity and realizing the social and economic benefits that come along with it.

Consumer Protection - Ensuring consumers are guaranteed high-quality, affordable internet service

Task Force Chair Jeremy Welter says seeing companies work together to support and share access to infrastructure, and simplifying Canada’s regulatory structure for greater accountability, transparency, and efficiency

make sense.

"SaskTel doesn't have to be the ultimate answer for every problem. You know SaskTel can very, very easily choose to work with smaller providers."

He notes they'd like to see shared access to infrastructure and fair partnerships between service providers including working with those smaller internet service providers.

"In a case like that, it's a case where everyone wins, the rural people living in the area win by getting good reliable accessible internet service. You know SaskTel wins because they are providing industry solutions to these companies, and these companies win. It's a made in Saskatchewan solution."

The RCTF recommendations were ratified by the APAS membership at their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday.

The Rural Connectivity Task Force has outlined key actions over the next 12 months to advocate for policy changes based on their recommendations.

You can find a copy of the APAS Rural Connectivity Task Force Report here.

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”