I was watching a CTV interview with (federal agriculture minister) Gerry Ritz recently. The reporter asked him if he had a contingency plan to return to the single desk if the new method of marketing farmers’ grain did not work.
Gerry started talking about farmers being able to start their own co-ops to sell their grain. I guess he either did not hear the question or could not understand it.
All the reporter and everyone else wanted to hear was yes, we can go back to what worked, or no, the Canadian Wheat Board as we know it is gone forever -sort of like the Crow rate. That was another huge improvement.
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I guess we all know what his answer would have been had he understood the question anyway. He is putting the industry in a new boat and sinking the old one before he even knows if it will float.
These new entrepreneur farmers, as Mr. Ritz calls them, remind me of the plantation owners in the old southern U.S. We all know how that turned out.
Most of them are in business because of money their fathers and grandfathers made through the wheat board. When things go south they will be the first to demand money from the government, i.e. taxpayers.
I guess the working people in the country will not mind paying a little more income tax so these entrepreneurs can park five or six $400,000 combines in their yards.
It gets kind of hard to recruit workers when they have to give up four or five thousand dollars every month in taxes….
The bright side to all this is that the new entrepreneur farmers are so talented they will have no problem finding jobs when their auction sales are over….
Lawrence Gutek,Hendon, Sask.
