I read with some disbelief the article by Dennis Rice (Farm bailouts not the answer, WP Oct. 21). I think Mr. Rice is confusing theory with reality and ignoring some facts.
Perhaps Mr. Rice does not know that we have been living with an export subsidy war for the past 15 years at least.
When it all started, Canada followed a policy of unilateral economic disarmament. First they killed the Crow agreement. Then they reduced or eliminated all the support programs that would have given Canadian farmers some protection against the trade war. It was all sold as deregulation.
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The Canadian government then allowed the railways to go from taking five percent of our grain cheques to taking over 30 percent. With the support of people like the (Western Canadian) Wheat Growers (Association) and the Reform party, Kroeger and the Liberals will allow that amount to go up again and forever.
Mr. Rice’s convoluted and economically illiterate argument about subsidies is simply an attempt to get peoples’ eyes off the ball. Canadian freight rates are the single biggest cost that we can control. The EU and the U.S. have already shown that export subsidies (where they pay countries to buy their grain) will be a reality for a long time to come. This will not change, no matter what we give up at the World Trade Organization.
Mr. Rice’s article attempts to confuse the difference between an export subsidy and an internal subsidy. He also pretends that the 150-year-old global oligopoly enjoyed by the big five multinational grain companies will go away. Let’s keep the focus on what we can control in Canada – freight rates. Right now it is the railways that want us to look elsewhere.
– Ken Larsen,
Benalto, Alta.
