Reliable info.?
The Canadian Wheat Board claims that “once wheat and barley marketing
in Western Canada is opened up, there is no going back under provisions
of the North American Free Trade Agreement.”
This was endorsed in the June 20 Western Producer editorial as a “valid
concern.”
However, whether the CWB is considered to be a monopoly or a state
enterprise, the words in Chapter 15 of NAFTA very clearly contradict
the CWB.
Article 1502 states: “Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to
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prevent a Party from designating a monopoly …”
Article 1503 states: “Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to
prevent a Party from maintaining or establishing a state enterprise.”
The CWB claim is also contradicted by 1998 amendments to the CWB Act
that provide for the addition of any other grain into the monopoly. …
While the issue about the reversibility of monopolies under NAFTA is a
somewhat important consideration, a far more important issue is about
the ethics and integrity of the CWB itself and the reliability and
accuracy of their information.
– John Husband,
Wawota, Sask.
Poor feedlots
Oh, the poor feedlot industry.
I for one don’t feel sorry for them. What they are going through is
exactly what happened to the grain companies in the 1920s. There were
over 500 grain companies, and none of them hedged the grain they
bought. They took the hit when prices fluctuated and most went
bankrupt, leaving only about five companies left today.
Why don’t these feedlots hedge their grain prices in the future, so
they know how much they will be paying? They then could budget on how
much they could pay for feeder animals.
In addition, they could hedge or forward price their feeder animal
prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. That way they could lock in
a profit and let someone else speculate on the price swings.
To me, the feedlot industry needs to get out of the dark ages and hire
some ag economists to teach them how to lock in profits. After all, all
the feedlots should get paid for is the pounds they put on in finishing
the animals, not the price swings in their favour, because it can just
as easily go against their favour.
– Shawn Wourms,
St. Walburg, Sask.
Then what?
All very well indeed (Senators agree Canada should help farmers, June
27, WP), but so far I have heard nothing about any drought relief for
those of us in that particular situation, and it is extreme.
In my particular area of northeast Alberta, we have had a total of
four-tenths of precipitation since mid April, and temperatures in the
high 20s and 30s.
The government has deferred capital gains tax if you are forced to sell
your breeding stock, but in most cases, if you are selling, it is at a
major loss because there is simply no feed and no buyers. I have heard
of farmers taking in a load of cows to an auction mart and being told
not to even off-load them, there was no sale for them. If you have no
feed, and can’t sell them, then what?
There is no hay for sale. No straw. No grain, not even screenings. And
nothing is growing.
It is not just cattle. There are the lamb and pork producers who are
suffering as well. A neighbour took in some bred sows and got $75 each
for them. Another took in a couple of dozen ewes and 84 lambs between
50 and 70 pounds, and came home with $600 less than he had paid for the
ewes in the first place. I doubt very much that they were thinking “at
least we won’t have to pay any capital gains on this money.”
As usual, by the time the government gets its collective hands out from
where they are sitting on them, it will be too little, too late for a
lot of people.
It is interesting that the prices in the supermarket are at the same
levels as they always have been.
Maybe when the consumers are up in arms because there is a shortage of
steaks for the barbecue, someone will notice there is a problem.
– Orena Fowler,
Bonnyville, Alta.
Rural depopulation
Occasionally The Western Producer, particularly in Open Forum,
publishes very profound articles particularly on rural depopulation. A
modest decrease in rural population was expected since the 1940s
because of increased educational opportunities and mechanization but
not what has taken place.
A historic Blaine Lake municipal map … lists about 23 sections in
township 43 tended by 60 taxpaying farmsteads. …Later came the
private corporate bureaucrats, whose influence on governments inspired
the weak and corrupt elected representatives to yield to private
corporate interests; hence the tightening of the cost price squeeze and
rural depopulation. …
John Davis (Open Forum, May 23) briefly described private corporate
slanted vocabulary when they disguise a cesspool of feces urine, and
what else, a lagoon. A real lagoon is a clean recreational area. It is
amazing the depths private corporate bureaucrats … will stoop to
deceive the mass.
Other propaganda spread by private corporate bureaucrats and their
deceived folk are statements like, “even if you must borrow, expand or
get left behind.” Any thinking person who analyzes such messages
quickly sees the true message given is work to squeeze out smaller
producers even if you must take a loan or you will get left behind.
Had our municipalities been aware of such treachery, they would have
adjusted tax rates to prevent such practices. Out of municipal land
purchasers with no intentions of settling within the respective
municipality would be taxed at least 50 percent above regular rate. No
wonder township 43 now has only four taxpaying farmsteads.
Private corporate bureaucrats insist private enterprise drives a sound
economy. That is true (only) with small scale entrepreneurs. …
Paraphrasing some media sources, Hymie Rubenstein has stated, “the more
farmers a nation has, the poorer it is.”
Common sense and history tell us the reverse is true. The more giant
private corporations show their colors, the clearer it becomes that
their intent is to establish the worst tyranny ever.
– Stuart Makaroff,
Saskatoon, Sask.
