GM wheat
Do the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association really have to depend
on the contributions of their corporate members such as Monsanto at
this time to survive, that they are prepared to put farmers’ markets at
risk by endorsing GM wheat?
All our customers say they do not want it and will not buy it. And all
the other farm organizations have rejected it.
I was always told you’d better find out what your customers want.
Read Also
Determining tariff compensation will be difficult but necessary
Prime minister Mark Carney says his government will support canola farmers, yet estimating the loss and paying compensation in an equitable fashion will be no easy task, but it can be done.
It’s no wonder their credibility has sunk to its present low level.
– Avery Sahl,
Mossbank, Sask.
Animal cruelty
Humane societies and SPCAs (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals) across Canada continue to be frustrated by the alarmist
opposition to Bill C-15B being expressed by various farming groups and
by Alliance members of parliament, particularly Vic Toews and Howard
Hilstrom, both from Manitoba.
This bill is long overdue to update the current wording of the animal
cruelty sections of the Criminal Code, which were enacted more than 100
years ago. The public support for changes to Canada’s animal cruelty
legislation is huge.
Those opposing the bill, however, claim it will threaten farmers,
hunters, researchers and other animal users. This is simply not true.
As clearly stated by former justice minister Anne McLellan, “that which
is lawful today continues to be lawful.”
Opponents worry that animal rights groups will attempt to bring
frivolous or harassment prosecutions against animal users. We are
talking here about criminal charges, not civil lawsuits. Criminal
charges are brought forward with the approval of crown prosecutors, and
only when they are satisfied that certain criteria have been met.
In fact, Bill C-15B will make it even more difficult for private
individuals or groups to bring charges for animal cruelty or neglect.
Under the new bill animal crimes are considered hybrid offences which
require much greater involvement of the crown prosecutor than summary
offence crimes. Most animal crimes are currently pursued as summary
offences.
The other argument being put forward by opponents is that animal users
will lose the protection of common law defences outlined in Section 429
of the Criminal Code.
Again, this is misleading. The applicable common law defences,
including lawful excuse and legal justification, remain in Section 8
(3) of the Code.
The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, on behalf of more than 100
member societies and branches and 400,000 individuals, is hoping the
appropriate powers in our government’s Parliament and Senate will see
these amendments as the long-overdue and reasonable changes that they
are and disregard the alarmist claims of its opponents.
– Shelagh MacDonald,
Canadian Federation
of Humane Societies,
Nepean, Ont.
Bank funds
The little Island of Guernsey has a land mass of about 25 square miles
– less than one township on our prairies. Population at the time of the
writing of the following information was not given but today it is only
about 64,000. Agriculture has been its primary industry.
In about 1815, the island was in dire straits. The state debt was
£19,137 which had annual interest charges of £2,390. Annual revenue was
£3,000. Net revenue was only £600, rather an inadequate amount when
contemplating public works.
The island desperately needed many things: breakwaters in the harbour,
roads, a public market, schools, housing. What could be done without
borrowing from the banks, which would only put them in further debt
which they could not ever pay?
A committee was formed to try and find solutions. Fortunately the men
chosen were men who used common sense.
After much deliberation they decided to have States Notes printed and
put into circulation for the many works. The first issue was for
£6,000. This they did. No interest was to be charged. The debt was
recovered by import duties, rentals on property and other charges. This
was over a 10-year period. The action did not take place until 1817.
The report goes on to detail what transpired since then. The issue of
notes was not without opposition, which came from the two banks. These
were overcome in time. Further issues have been made as required. In
1958 £542,765 were in circulation.
There is no private bank on the island, simply State Notes and British
treasury notes. The people are prosperous and tourism has become a big
business. Taxes are low and the State has had balanced budgets.
Now let’s look at another scene. In 1817 the city of Glasgow in
Scotland built its Candleriggs Fruit Market at a cost of £60,000. This
money was secured by a conventional interest bearing bank loan.
Yes, the loan was paid off – 139 years later, in 1956. The writers of
the report were not able to obtain precise information on total
interest paid since the procurement of the loan. It is on record that
from 1910 to 1956 no less than £267,885 was paid in interest alone.
Pity the poor taxpayers of Glasgow for such abuse.
You may ask what is the purpose of this letter. It should be self
evident that there is a problem with our financial system. It can be
said that only one in 1,000 citizens, likely higher, know where our
money comes from.
I hope this brief note will stir some people to attempt to find out how
we are being taken with the procedure of money creation.
– Herman Arason,
Glenboro, Man.
Not all rednecks
Feb. 6, on a radio interview, our Alberta minister of agriculture,
Shirley McLellan, opted to slime the Canadian Wheat Board. Most western
farmers want the Board stronger, not weaker. …
The CWB has a very heavy load of responsibilities. Now Shirley wants
them to solve unemployment.
Well, dear Shirley, NARP (Northern Alberta Rapeseed Processors) at
Sexsmith is going to make glue, maybe, the fibreboard plant at Wanham
is making plywood, and our huge pelleting plant is long gone also. The
local elevators are all gone. Alberta’s diversification has seen many
of us lose money to various plotters.
Your cherished Canola Council rips me off every fall, a buck or two a
bushel. Then they take deductions off me to pay them for their trouble.
And your government has made getting a refund so difficult that the
deduction has become a normal way of stealing. Who said capitalists are
dumb?
Not all Albertans are rednecks. We don’t all hate Liberals, federalism,
the East or Quebec. We concede that politicians depend on the rich to
win elections, and the rewards thereafter.
So what can you do about my refund? Or am I too poor to ask?
– Merlin Wozniak,
Wanham, Alta.
Subsidies
I was very disappointed in the article entitled “Safety nets programs
must look beyond subsidies, says report” in the Feb.7 issue of The
Western Producer.
The conclusions in the report are seriously flawed and need to be
challenged.
The report harps about subsidies being capitalized into land values.
This sounds good in theory, but in reality farmland values, outside the
urban-affected areas, are no higher than 20 years ago. The force
driving land values up within an hour’s drive of many cities is high
urban incomes and demand for acreage property or hobby farms. Canadian
subsidies, on a per acre basis, are so low that they have no real
effect on land values.
The article states that (by causing higher land values) “higher
Canadian subsidies would … cause… increased farm debt.”
U.S. and European Economic Community subsidies have forced crop prices
so low that crop revenue does not cover non-land input costs. Extremely
low commodity prices, not high land prices, have caused increased farm
debt. In real dollars, farmland is cheaper than it has ever been,
leaving little equity for many farmers to borrow on or to retire with.
The article also states that U.S. subsidies have “lulled … American
farmers into ignoring the need to evolve…”. The reality is that large
U.S. subsidies have enabled U.S. farmers to buy new equipment, new
technology and more land so as to increase their productivity.
Ottawa doesn’t write reports claiming that government subsidies to
Bombardier or to the CBC or to the arts or to thousands of other urban
businesses and institutions are “inflating” asset values and “delaying
fundamental adjustments that have to take place.”
The reality is that there is no industry in Canada that could survive
for long without government assistance under the relentless attack of
the foreign subsidies that have targeted many of our agricultural
products.
The Canadian government seems quite ready to protect Canadian
publishing, broadcasting, airlines, aerospace, medicine and education,
etc. Fortunately, most Canadian industries outside agriculture are not
subject to intense foreign subsidies and can therefore compete on a
somewhat level playing field without assistance.
The report seems to indicate a bureaucratic mindset that Canadian
farmers are seen as simple people who deserve only low incomes and low
asset values, and who are incapable of making management decisions
without platitudes to “diversify” and to “evolve.”
Canadian farmers do not need or want subsidies. What they need is
assistance to offset the effects of aggressive U.S. and E.E.C.
subsidies in specific areas, so that they can compete on an equal
basis. Let’s start by not calling all assistance “subsidies,” and by
introducing some basic rights to compete on a level playing field.
– John Leahy,
Taber, Alta.
What if
What if we had leaders in this country that stood up and said:
“The inclusion of special crops under the Loan Deficiency Payment
program is the equivalent of economic warfare against our farmers. It
is like flying a plane into the heart of our farm industry, and the
agricultural industry around the world.
“The world has agreed to move in a direction away from trade distorting
subsidies and this about-turn in direction cannot be tolerated by
Canada and all agricultural producers in the world.”
If the U.S. expects the world to be allies against global terrorism
then they should not be economic terrorists in agricultural policy.”
Would this help the (U.S. farm) bill not to be passed?
– Vicki Dutton,
North Battleford, Sask.
