Elk meeting
The Peace elk chapter invited MLAs of the Peace area to a meeting to air issues of the elk industry, as well trying to show them what our industry is doing and trying to do.
But I’m sad to say the meeting left most everyone with a bad taste in their mouth.
Hector Gourdeau said government is working for agriculture in the way of Net Income Stabilization Accounts, Farm Income Disaster Assistance, basically government handouts which we wouldn’t need if we were allowed to have our elk classified as agriculture and have hunt farms in the province.
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Gordon Graydon basically didn’t have anything new in the elk industry that we could grab hold of.
Then there was Mel Knight, who told us what issues we were going to discuss and which issues wouldn’t be open for discussion.
One of the MLAs suggested chronic wasting disease was our problem, not the agricultural part. CWD is not our problem but the media is.
There are 40,000 plus elk in the province and only one case of CWD, which I ‘m still not sure if it was diagnosed properly.
We are tested for tuberculosis every three years and every elk that is slaughtered, their heads are sent in to be tested for any kind of disease.
We actually have the cleanest, most tested meat in the country. No other meat product is tested as severely as elk and deer and yet they carry diseases that are just as bad as CWD if not worse.
But none of these arguments could be used because we all had to sit there with our mouths closed because we had all been told to keep our mouths shut in a nice political way, of course.
It was quite laughable, actually. We had invited them to our meeting and we had been dictated to what could be discussed. Being treated like two-year-olds is quite hard on us old guys and girls.
The MLAs are really only puppets of the premier. They go out and take the heat of the people and shield the premier, who has the final say whether it’s right or wrong.
The MLAs are more interested in the power of their political parties than in the problems of the people who elect them.
They are a government that leaves an industry and the people with no hope and when there is no hope, there is no faith in MLAs or premier.
– Beverly Lein,
Manning, Alta.
Winners
In his response to the Western Barley Growers Association, (CWB and value-added, Nov. 14) Canadian Wheat Board president Greg Arason fails to respond to the concern that many farmers share: The CWB impedes farmers’ ability to capture the added value that comes through the processing of their product.
Over the last two decades, many rural communities have benefited from the farmer-owned processing of specialty crops. In Saskatchewan alone, 17 percent of rural communities are now home to at least one specialty crop processing plant.
On average, each of these 128 plants provides eight jobs and contributes more than $400,000 annually to the community in direct economic benefits.
Regrettably, however, the same economic impact has not been realized in board grains. The wheat mills found on the Prairies are predominantly urban-centred and foreign-owned. The economic benefits they generate seldom reach the farmgate, and are often distributed outside the country to foreign shareholders.
Farmers who want to add value to their grain through processing find that the CWB’s pooling system stands between them and the profits of vertical integration.
Allowing producers to bypass the wheat board’s compulsory pooling system would provide them with the opportunity to capture the full economic benefits of value-added processing. The winners will be farm families and rural communities.
– David L. Anderson,
MP, Cypress Hills-Grasslands,
Ottawa, Ont.
Unfair taxes
Recently we received a statement from the rural municipality of Kindersley, (Sask.) for the arrears showing as owed by us for 2001. We refused to pay the increase in taxes from 2000 as a protest against what we feel is the unfair education tax on property. We know we are not alone in realizing this to be an unfair tax and that many others refused to pay property taxes altogether.
The education tax on property is archaic, designed in a time when Saskatchewan people either owned farmland or businesses in nearby towns. …
We are paying for the public education of many who do not own property, including some young people that the federal government is, in fact, responsible for as far as funding their education costs, such as First Nations children and those on social assistance. …
There are three Canadian provinces that do not fund public education through a property tax and we believe the Saskatchewan economy would benefit a great deal by becoming the fourth. …
We are proud of our provincial public education and the high standards that are adhered to in spite of financial cutbacks and we are aware of the importance of educating our future citizens, but it is time the people of this province found a new way of covering the costs.
The year 2002 will go down in history as a year of extreme crisis on the Prairies. Many rural people will have to make a choice between paying their taxes or putting food on the table.
There is a saying that times of crisis provoke thought and promote positive change. Perhaps this year would be a good time to take positive action that can only benefit our province now and in the future.
My question to you: How can we as citizens of Saskatchewan make a change without years of studies? For example, could a phasing out of the education tax take the place of the complicated and costly administrative tax rebate program of the past?
The savings in administration expenses plus the economic spinoffs of leaving that money in farmers’ hands would result in more money in provincial coffers for education. If we challenged the government with letters, following the contents of this one, to follow through on an action of this type, I believe change could take place – a change for the better for Saskatchewan people.
– Yvonne Hopkins,
Flaxcombe, Sask.
