WCE future
The political innuendo drifting from the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange as of late over the disillusion of the open outcry trading floor and the possible transformation to electronic trading will do nothing to instill confidence in the current contracts and halt the sliding open interest and volume that has been occurring over the last few years. …
In a meeting between floor traders and the WCE [recently] and reported on DTN, nothing was said to rescind the rumours that the Montreal Exchange and the Winnipeg Exchange were contemplating a merger. With no clarification or denial of the rumour, don’t look for the open interest to be rising anytime soon at the WCE. The politics of this game need to be analyzed further.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Where does the politics come into play?
The floor traders are demanding to know what their future holds as their livelihoods are at stake. They used to enjoy the fluctuations of the rye and oat contract until international companies no longer traded them because of the illiquid and illogical nature.
The flax contract is now close to extinction as it no longer trades most days and foreign buyers have deemed it irrelevant. Wild fluctuations are not consistent with a properly functioning futures market.
The members (now called shareholders) should want to ensure that contracts work, because without a full compliment of hedgers, importers, exporters and speculators, futures markets can’t function.
The WCE is there to enhance price discovery and attempts to venture into other contracts have failed. The canola meal contract doesn’t trade – never has and doesn’t look like it ever will; the field pea contract was revised three times but doomed from the outset with a delivery point on a boat in Europe, traded in U.S. dollars. …
Direction starts from within and to date, the direction of the WCE has been anything but stellar when comparing statistics to other exchanges.
Last year, each agricultural exchange in the U.S. posted record volume. Winnipeg’s volume has declined over the last two years.
Drought enhances volume as indicated by the Kansas, Minneapolis and Chicago statistics. Not so, says the WCE, which would rather spend its energies trading pollution credits than fixing its sagging agriculture volume.
Everyone must buy into the theory that the WCE is an integral part of Canadian agriculture, including the Canadian Wheat Board.
For too long, the WCE’s image has been tarnished as “the big bad exchange” while not realizing that it does provide a useful service to farmers. It is akin to the railways scenario where it was easier to blame something you know than something you don’t. No one understood railcar allocation, so it was easy to blame the railways on how or why no cars were showing up at local elevators. …
Farmers should be alarmed at the drop in open interest at the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, even if you never have or intend to trade futures. An accurate price discovery mechanism ensures that you have a benchmark for the products you grow. Without it, margins widen and the true price of grain is lost.
The real question that needs to be asked is this: Do the WCE members, farmers, the minister of the CWB, the minister of agriculture and the Canadian grain industry really require price discovery or is supporting the WCE just a cliché that we will be talking about for the next 10 years when it is gone?
…Will the last grain company leaving for its new head office in Calgary remember to turn out the lights in Winnipeg?…
– Larry Weber,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Hog barns
How unfortunate that, at this point in time, our farm (NE18-35-31-W1) is located in the rural municipality of Livingston 331 in the Pelly area of Saskatchewan. Why is it unfortunate, you may ask?
One of the proposed feeder hog barns is to be located within four miles of our farm residence.
Secondly, another proposed feeder hog barn site (SW8-35-31-W1) will be one and one-half miles from not only our farm residence but also our private well that supplies our drinking water.
Thirdly, we didn’t put 20 years of hard work, effort and money into beautifying our farm site to have two hog barns plunked down in our back yard. Since these barns do devalue one’s property, all our time, effort and finances to improve our farm will have been in vain. …
We do not wish to experience what ratepayers and residents are experiencing in the RMs of Preeceville 334, Buchanan 304, Invermay 305 and Hazel Dell 335. Why should I sacrifice my health and the health of my family, especially that of my daughter who has asthma, for an economic enterprise that will benefit a minority at the expense of the majority?
Why should I be singled out to no longer be able to enjoy being outdoors and why should I be forced to keep all of our doors and windows closed because of the pig odour?
I do not look forward to the constant traffic, noise, dust, and deterioration of our municipal roads. Neither do I want to deal with an increase in rodents, skunks, flies and coyotes.
Why should our well water test unsafe for human consumption? Will my children and grandchildren refuse to visit us under these circumstances?
What right does the RM of Livingston 331, Lac La Course Hogs Inc., Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food and local proponents have to punish us by making us prisoners within our own home?
If the promoters and supporters in the RMs of Livingston 331, St. Philips 301, Clayton 333 and Keys think that these barns are so good for the community, why aren’t they allowing the barns to be built in the vicinity of their farm residences? Surely, what is good for the goose is also good for the gander….
In order to retain its credibility – whatever remains of it – I advise Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food to put a hold on these hog operations in the Pelly area until all issues are resolved. I urge Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, Saskatchewan Municipal Affairs and Saskatchewan Justice and Intergovernmental Affairs to conduct a thorough and far-reaching investigation into the irregularities within the RM of Livingston 331 and into the flawed public process used by Lac La Course Hogs Inc. and Big Sky Farms.
Unless these government departments pursue such a review, they will be seen as abetting in processes and procedures that are not democratic, not honest, not transparent and not fair.
– Vikki Lozinsky,
Pelly, Sask.
GGC position
A number of readers may have misinterpreted the safety net position taken by the Grain Growers of Canada after reviewing the article titled “One grain lobby group decides to pick its battles.”
It is important for me to write to clarify this issue.
I can assure you that the Grain Growers of Canada have not, nor will we, back away from our fight for an effective safety net program for grains and oilseed farmers. Evidence of this can easily be found by reviewing the numerous submissions we have made to Minister (Lyle) Vanclief …
Nor have we endorsed the business risk management proposals under the Agriculture Policy Framework. We continue to have serious concerns regarding the proposed programs.
The Grain Growers of Canada will continue to play a lead role in pushing for changes that would correct these deficiencies – just as we have played a lead role throughout this debate.
The Grain Growers of Canada have outlined five key areas not addressed by the current proposals that must be resolved if the new business risk management pillar is to meet the needs of Canada’s grains and oilseed farmers:
1. A mechanism to address the impact of foreign interference must be introduced.
2. Regional flexibility must be maintained.
3. The program must be proven to effectively address stabilization and disaster mitigation risks for grains and oilseed farmers.
4. Affordability concerns of grains and oilseed farmers must be addressed.
5. Concerns regarding the trade implications of the new programs must be resolved before implementation.
The Grain Growers of Canada have focused our efforts on all of the key issues facing farm families today, including the biotechnology debate, international trade, grain marketing, transportation, environmental regulations, as well as safety nets. We will continue to work on all aspects of agriculture policy and not just one or two items.
The Grain Growers of Canada has had success in shaping public policies because out positions are based on sound principles and in-depth research. I know that this will continue into the future.
– Ken Bee,
President,
Grain Growers of Canada,
Ottawa, Ont.
Poverty
Re: “Poverty affects women, society” (WP, May 1).
How in the world can you justify that Manitoba women are poorer than any others? We own a farm and both my husband and I have to work off that farm. While our income looks high, our expenses are higher so we lose money every year.
While I agree on increasing minimum wages, I do not agree with discounts (that) are (on) some people’s bills.
Whether working or not, everyone should pay the same. Giving discounts or changing pensions would just be one more reason for people not to work and stay on or go on welfare programs. I only wish I had the so-called choice to stay home.
The only solution is not to lose so much of your income to taxes and to have all people and all races pay taxes.
Income taxes were only to be for awhile to pay for the past world war, not to increase people and money in the government. Everyone’s aim should be at the overpaid government, not making the system easier to abuse.
– Leslie Flicek,
Neilburg, Sask.
Sick of Spudco
I am sick and tired of reading articles by members of the Saskatchewan Party about Spudco.
My memory is long enough to remember that the Saskatchewan Party was the (Progressive) Conservative Party until it became so corrupt, in order to distance itself from the name Conservatives they changed it to the Saskatchewan Party. Can a leopard change its spots?
In an attempt to promote a potato industry in Saskatchewan, the New Democratic Party cost Saskatchewan taxpayers $28 million. When the [Grant] Devine Conservatives left office, they also left the taxpayers a $15 billion debt for Saskatchewan taxpayers to pay. Twenty-eight million dollars is a lot of money but pales in comparison to the $28 million the Devine Conservatives cost the taxpayers every month for 520 months.
Where were the ex -Conservatives of the Saskatchewan Party, the Elwin Hermansons, the Brad Walls, the ex-Conservatives now sitting MLAs for the Saskatchewan Party, during these years?
Farmers were the biggest victims of this debt. Ironically, the farmers almost elected the very party responsible for their plight.
The money that should have been available when they were hit by consecutive drought years wasn’t there. The debt payments have averaged about $700 million a year. If this money was available, the government could have made payments to farmers and helped health, highways and other services.
The Saskatchewan Party is long on criticism but if they have any policy solutions, they’re being kept secret.
It would be nice to forget the Devine years if it wasn’t for the $15 billion debt. It almost makes one ill when you think of the tens of billions that future generations of taxpayers will pay on principal and interest before they are free of this debt.
I hope farmers stop and think before they cast their ballots in the upcoming election. Don’t put the fox back in the chicken house.
– J. H. Book,
Outlook, Sask.
