Viable schools
Thirty to 60 rural Saskatchewan schools are struggling to compete with urban schools based upon the cost per pupil to maintain a full complement of staff, services and daily busing. This situation is rapidly moving towards a crisis point.
My three kids range from 19 to 25 and all went through a rural school and have or are completing university degrees. In the mid 1980s I was on a local school board.
I can state that sending kids off to the city Monday morning and busing them back on Friday or boarding them in the city and asking parents to bring them home on weekends seems contrary to keeping rural community viable in the long term.
Read Also
Crop profitability looks grim in new outlook
With grain prices depressed, returns per acre are looking dismal on all the major crops with some significantly worse than others.
At very least it offloads costs onto rural parents. These costs can only be reduced if rural parents move their permanent households to the city and commute to work the farms as required.
However, I am not going to whine. I propose a simple, cost effective alternative solution.
Back in the 1980s I determined that communications technology should be employed to link students and teachers in rural schools with urban schools. The problem was that reasonably priced technology that does not diminish the quality of education just was not available. …
Recently, unbelievably low cost, high performance Wi-Fi long distance networks able to deliver cable modem data speeds have become available. They are designed to be affordable for Third World customers in Africa and India who need Wi-Fi for mobile medical clinic diagnostic telemedicine and microloan business client support.
Communication is a two-way function. Teachers with very small rural class sizes could provide distance education services to urban schools. Then all rural teachers would have a 25-pupil class size to divide their salary cost over. Perhaps some urban school construction could be avoided by piping the rural teachers directly into the homes of urban pupils. This might reduce the need for new school construction in the cities….
Perhaps we still have time before the rural schools go the way of the elevators to rationalize education without adding to rural depopulation.
– Morris Johnson,
Beaubier, Sask.
Tough on crime
It is now two years since the tragic and horrifying murder of four of our RCMP in Mayerthorpe, Alta., who were shot by killer James Roszko, who then shot himself. The deputy mayor of Mayerthorpe, a former RCMP, said at the time (March 7, CBC): “The problem is this Liberal justice system. This guy got off on multiple charges.”
Liberal leader Stephane Dion, considering that another election may be looming, could be aware that voters may be wondering what has been done to prevent a similar catastrophe.
A federal report was released by the media March 6 announcing that a type of body armour has been made available for RCMP but only for those in Mayerthorpe. It is heavy, hot and difficult to manoeuvre in, protecting an area the size of a dinner plate.
It has been reported further study will be needed before the program is expanded to areas outside Mayerthorpe.
The real question to be asked of the Liberals is why Roszko, with his long list of violent charges, was never declared a dangerous offender and locked up for life. His charges included impersonating a peace officer, pointing a firearm, counselling to commit murder, unlawful confinement and using a gun to commit sexual assault … all of which were acquitted.
Stephen Harper says if his Bill C 27 passes, predators who have been convicted of two prior serious sex and/or other violent crimes are to be designated dangerous offenders to be put behind bars and off the streets, which could be for life or until a professional deems them rehabilitated.
However, Harper stated that “our opponents continue to obstruct our tough on crime bills and they do so at their own peril.”
– Audrey Jensen,
Red Deer, Alta.
Burning up
A couple of months ago everyone was talking about the mild winter across Canada and global warming was the problem and that the earth was going to burn up. It wasn’t long and we had climate change, and winter set in, snow and cold temperatures down to -40 and six people froze to death on the Prairies.
David Suzuki called on all politicians to work together to fix the problem before the earth burns up.
Yes, some day the earth will burn up and all the elements therein shall burn with fervent heat, the Bible says, but man is not going to destroy the earth. God is still in control. We are being brainwashed every day about global warming….
As for climate change, yes, it does change and it will till the end of time. Nothing to worry about. We have almost begun to take it for granted that global warming is man-made but if there is a change in temperature, it is most likely caused by changes from the radiation of the sun.
Is any one out there going to change their lifestyle? Now the federal government will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on what?
– Arnold Helgeson,
Southey, Sask.
Puzzling battle
For 30 years I’ve owned and managed a small business. Like farmers, we have a varied product line. While some have gone the way of the dinosaur, new opportunities keep emerging.
Following the Canadian Wheat Board debate is a little baffling. Pro monopoly letter writers bemoan the big bad grain companies. They fear being forced to sell their grain to them if the CWB is stripped of its monopoly.
Primary industries, including grain producers, can only succeed when an infrastructure is in place to support and provide logistics to efficiently and competitively market products globally.
Apparently wheat prices in Canada have been below the cost of production for the last few years. Global competition from emerging producers like Ukraine and Argentina is a reality.
While the CWB claims to make millions for farmers, farmers claim they cannot make a profit producing wheat for the CWB. Yet they both claim the CWB is their best protection. This is a puzzling equation, to say the least.
Comparing CWB prices at the farmgate to the free market in the United States, where there isn’t a collective marketing system, provides sharp deviation from this rhetoric.
American farmers get higher prices from large corporate grain companies than Canadian farmers get from the CWB.
I am facing stiff competition from China. Protectionism and regulation will not alter that. I can change to compete and survive, or I can do something else. I am choosing the first.
As a businessman, capturing commercial opportunities from emerging new technologies and new prospects is my driving force. This principle propels economies throughout the world.
Well capitalized grain companies are the foundation of Canada’s ability to export grain.
It’s time to acknowledge the valuable service each sector in this value chain provides to the industry and the economy of Western Canada. That includes everyone from farmers to processors to merchandisers.
Why is it so un-Canadian to work in a spirit of healthy collaboration with your industry partners? There is a bleak future for our young people without it.
– Lorne Neyedly,
Lockport, Man.
Food travels
Britain’s National Consumer Council says air freighting one small basket of New Zealand strawberries to Britain produces as much carbon dioxide emissions as 11 average drives made by parents driving their children to school.
Yet the Kagera Co-operative Union in Tanzania would like Brits to ignore locally grown fresh produce and instead support poor African food producers by buying fresh fruit and vegetables imported from sub-Saharan Africa.
That makes as much sense as it would to let our prairie farmers starve while Canada imports wheat from Russia and China.
– Claudette Sandecki,
Terrace, B.C.
Eat cake
Re: WP, March 22, “SARM president praises senior levels of government.”
At the annual Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, it looks to me like the delegates want their cake and eat it too. The rural area keeps wanting lower taxes and more services for less and less population.
SARM president David Marit praises the Harper government …. Well, there are 12 Conservative, or should I say Harper’s Reform/Alliance MPs in Ottawa. A powerful Saskatchewan caucus? Where were they on the equalization promise for Saskatchewan?
At the same meeting, Marit states about school closures shoved down their throats.

Well, I don’t agree. School closure is not new. It is a reality. There are very few kids in the rural areas. That is a fact. …
Our NDP government is doing a great job of public education based on need, accessibility and available resources, so give them some credit.
– George Christenson,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Letters to the editor
letters
Dirty tricks
Over the past year, (prime minister Stephen) Harper, (federal agriculture minister Chuck) Strahl, (Saskatchewan MP David) Anderson and company have perpetrated an endless string of dirty tricks against western Canadian farmers and the Canadian Wheat Board.Â
Conservative MP and CWB supporter from Manitoba, Inky Mark, believes his mail to constituents has been sabotaged by the inclusion of anti-CWB material. The anti-CWB material asks people to start creating lists of CWB supporters, including their names, addresses and phone numbers.
Mark also says the tampering had to be the work of a fellow Conservative MP who orchestrated the change (Western Producer March 15).
Even if Harper, Strahl and Anderson won’t admit to the act of sabotage or investigate it, they could at least denounce the idea of tampering with the parliamentary mail. The National Farmers Union’s request for a swift denunciation has been met with silence.
This revelation comes on the heels of David Anderson’s disgraceful appearance before the House of Commons agriculture committee in early March.
During that appearance, Anderson and another anti-CWB Conservative MP accused their handpicked CWB CEO of lying to the committee. They made these accusations in spite of irrefutable evidence provided to the contrary.
Barry Wilson is a long time Ottawa reporter who has keenly watched thousands of MPs come and go. Mr. Wilson described David Anderson’s tactics this way: “There is no honour in the way these two senior Conservatives treated someone conscripted into the battle to save their credibility in the wheat board campaign. Shame on them.” (WP, March 8.)
Are Harper, Strahl and Anderson finished with their dirty tricks? Not a chance. Look for them to ignore section 47.1 of the CWB Act, which says the only way to add or remove a grain is to change the legislation in Parliament. Look for them to try to change the regulations behind closed doors, in secret, with no accountability.
– Stewart Wells,
President,
National Farmers Union,
Swift Current, Sask.
Look ahead
… Something anti-CWB farmers should keep in mind when they are pushing to end the CWB monopoly is what will happen when the agribusiness giants get their patents and identity preserved wheats and barleys in the market, so that a farmer can’t grow any of their IP seed without a Technology Use Agreement and a contract to sell back to them the entire crop grown from the seed.
The Cargills and Monsantos will be telling farmers what grains and oilseeds the farmers will be growing because by then the farmers who are indebted to the big companies for fertilizers and chemicals won’t be able to buy anything on credit other than what “the company” sells. The company will also be telling the farmers when they will be delivering their crops.
Don’t believe it? Ask any farmer who had a fertilizer or chemical bill with Agricore United that was due last fall, when AU had them deliver canola. What was the price the farmer got for canola last fall and what is it now? It is much better now, but the big companies have found a way around giving all of that higher price to farmers. They just increase the basis, that part of the price that they get, so the farmer doesn’t get the full benefit of the higher commodity price, but the Agricores, Cargills and ADMs increase their profits.
This year farmers can no longer buy seed treatment for on farm saved canola seed. They have to buy seed that is already treated. How much does that seed cost?Â
Around here the price is $6 per pound for the seed, and upwards, plus the cost of the chemical, and many seeds also have a TUA. At 50 pounds per bushel of canola, that makes a nice tidy sum of $300 per bu. that the seed supplier is getting from the farmer, not to mention what the chemical and seed distributor make.Â
So, if the CWB is no longer out there as a viable organization, which without its own elevators and terminal facilities, it won’t be, who will be in line to make the most money? After the Cargills, ADMs, Monsantos, etc., it will be seed growers. So if you happen to have a seed business and an arrangement with the agribusiness giants to grow seed for them, you will do all right. …
Being able to choose between five large agribusiness corporations and a few local millers and brewers to market grain is not a farmer’s marketing strategy. It is a grain company’s buying strategy. If there are hundreds of farmers competing for a contract from a miller or brewer, who has the best position in the deal? Not the farmers. They just compete against themselves. The buyers can pick and choose and offer a price that works for them.Â
So who benefits the most if the CWB is gone? The big corporations will …
– Dagmar Mehlsen,
Fairview, Alta.
Global warming
How worried are we Canadians about global warming? We should all take action on this issue.
Did you know that the technology is already available for zero emission cars? Electric vehicles have been available since 1996 but they were taken out of the market due to corporate interests.Â
Now, it seems that car makers are getting the message and some might come into the market. We all have to make sure they do not follow the steps taken before and bring out those electric vehicles to the consumer. Â
The only thing lacking to create a zero emission marketplace is our collective will to dump oil-based energy. As Canadians we should all make a zero emission pledge, a pledge that sends a powerful message: you, as a consumer, will not support an industry that continues to ignore the needs of the planet, public health and all living beings threatened by climate change.
Facing down one of the most powerful industries on the planet is a daunting task. But remember this important fact: you as a consumer wield more power with your purchases than any force on the planet. With high overhead, even a slight decline in sales will have an amplified impact on the corporate bottom line. If you speak with your dollar, the corporations will hear.
Don’t let them continue to drag their feet while the planet burns. We need radical change now, not five, 10 or 20 years from now.
One of the most important things you can do to help reduce the impact of global warming may be the easiest: stop buying cars that use gas. If you need a car, buy a used one in the meantime….
Contact your government and let them know that talking is not enough. Only real action is.
– John Krumbach,
Waterloo, Ont.
In a nutshell
Most of the debate over the Canadian Wheat Board is composed of half-truths and confusing rhetoric. Here’s the way I see it in a nutshell.
A wheat board is a monopoly on wheat, just like a labour union is a monopoly on labour and an oil cartel like OPEC is a monopoly on the supply of oil.
Whenever you leave the prices at the mercy of supply and demand, it usually falls to just above the cost of production.
About 100 years ago, western Canadian farmers came up with the concept of wheat pooling; that is, holding onto the grain, creating a bit of a shortage until prices went up. This is very similar to the way oil companies hold back production to boost oil prices. It’s no big secret.
Labour unions control the supply of labour in a similar way, holding back their services to force the wages higher. Another name for all this is supply management and it usually works quite well.Â
Now, who stands to benefit most from the removal of this mini-cartel called the CWB? The big multinational grain companies, of course. If you could trace back to the source of who’s influencing our politicians to dismantle the CWB, I think you’ll find most of them in offices about or near the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Is a CWB a good thing for farmers? Probably overall, but in a world moving rapidly toward liberalized trade, I don’t see much of a place for it on the negotiating table. I think it’s headed for the history books.
– Greg Popove,
Blackfalds, Alta.
Yeast source
I was interested in the women making a meal with produce grown or raised within 100 miles of where they live (WP, March 15). They were wondering about making yeast.
In Emmie Oddie’s cookbook printed in 1980 by Western Producer Prairie Books, she tells how to make sourdough starter without yeast, page 49. I used to enjoy her weekly column ever so much.
I would think it is harder to get salt, baking powder and baking soda than yeast and just as necessary. We are so thankful for so many different foods to enjoy.
– Molly MacLachlan,
Fawcett, Alta.
No ballot
I am a CWB permit holder for over 50 years. I have grown barley at least half of those years, including last year.
I didn’t even get a ballot to vote. I wonder how many other producers who supported the wheat board didn’t get ballots.
This vote has been flawed from the start. I think before any decision is made there should be an investigation into how faulty the vote really was.
– Robert Iverson,
Meota, Sask.
Hog inquiry
We are writing this letter in response to the article published in the March 15 issue of The Western Producer, “Manitoba’s hog inquiry hears local complaints.”
We were surprised at the attention that a prodigious paper such as The Western Producer gave to our presentation in Stonewall. Our report to the commission followed the opening day of the hearings in Winnipeg at which major players in the hog industry, such as the (Manitoba) Pork Council, Hogwatch and the humane society did lengthy presentations.
We are concerned with the tone of the article, which would suggest that our non-Hutterite group is simply creating trouble by complaining about the colony’s operation. We were very pleased that Mr. Hofer of Rock Lake, in his remarks to the reporter, did not buy into this line of thinking.
The lines of communication between the community and the colony remain open and discussions we’ve had are frank and respectful on both sides. Our presentation dealt with the colony because that is the situation with which we are familiar.
Had the reporter talked with us, he might have realized that our 11 recommendations for the commission were intended to address issues across the province similar to the ones that we face, and also included responsibilities of municipalities and the provincial government.
We do have concerns, as well, about the Clean Environment Commission hearings that we see happening. The colony had not indicated that they were going to do a presentation and were not there when we talked to the commission. It was only after we had reported to the commission that Rock Lake Colony indicated they would make a presentation.
Does this mean that the only thing that is going to happen at the commission’s hearings is that the opposite sides of this issue will simply reiterate their position? What new information can be expected from this process? Will these groups be expected to give recommendations to improve the problems we face? Where is the scientific community in this process?
We do have a problem in Manitoba. Otherwise, why would we have a moratorium on further construction of factory hog facilities?…
Intensive livestock operations including hog factory facilities in Manitoba are a very contentious issue. We need to recognize the fact that there are serious concerns with the hog industry here and work together to address these concerns so that pork production and other ILOs can flourish in this province without damaging the environment and affecting people’s well-being now and in the future.
– Jim McCowan and Bill Massey,
Concerned Citizens of Grosse Isle Committee,
Grosse Isle, Man.
