Rebate questions
It is common practice in a normal competitive business environment to see volume discounts or rebates offered to customers. The savings that these efficiencies generate are often shared between a business and the customer. For example, if a farmer has large hopper bins, a high capacity auger and easy hauling over good roads to an elevator with fast turn around, a commercial trucker may sharpen his pencil to get this business. If the trucker shares a portion of his efficiency gain with the farmer in the form of a rebated discount, it becomes a win for both parties. A recent study by the Producer Car Shippers of Canada has found that the railways are paying rebate incentives to the large elevators on the main lines that are three times the savings generated by these large elevators. To me that seems rather odd. I have also learned from the Producer Car Association that the rail revenue cap requested by and granted to the railways 10 years ago has a serious flaw. When the railways apply a little creative bookkeeping to the revenue cap formula, these incentives to the grain companies come directly out of farmer pockets instead of railway pockets. No wonder the railways are so generous with the incentives to the grain companies. They are spending someone else’s money, the farmer’s money, without their permission because there is no transparency. The grain companies are offering some of this same money back to the farmers and calling it a trucking incentive. These tricky rebates and incentives are raising serious concerns about the implications for existing short lines, the remaining branch lines, our road costs, our rural communities and our taxes.George E. Hickie,Waldron, Sask.
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Horses are partners
(Donna O’Neil’s) letter (Opinion, May 20) requires a reality check. … In North America, horses are for equestrians, not horse meat enthusiasts. This is why.Whether you are developing the athletic horse, maintaining a specialized breed of horse or raising trustworthy pleasure and service horses, breeding horses is a skill.It is an expensive venture that requires serious planning, investment and commitment, and it also requires the implementation of other associated skills such as marketing, promotions, training, care and husbandry, carpentry, supervision of staff and creativity. To breed, raise, feed, train and sell one horse, the person making the commitment invests thousands of dollars – stud fee, mare care, facility costs, time, labour, vet, more time training, hiring a trainer, providing your horse with experience, new skills and practice and then finally either using the horse you have bred yourself or selling your investment. Anyone launching into a business without considering their initial investments and the realistic payback will be unpleasantly surprised and far too often these days, it is the resulting horses that suffer. The “new kid” on the North American block, the horse slaughter industry, is an insult to the breeder, trainer, hay grower and everyone involved in the sporting and pleasure horse industry. An Equine Canada report in 2003 valued our sport and pleasure horse industry at $12 billion that year. Currently, horse slaughter only accounts for a small fraction of the overall economic contribution of Canada’s horse industry. If you take a detailed look into it, the overall health risk to the entire industry contributed by the transportation of thousands of slaughter horses is most likely quite high. I challenge Equine Canada to conduct a risk analysis of the horse meat industry. Many equestrians may be shocked at the double standard that exists between the care and transport of equestrian horses and the care and transport of meat horses. A per pound price for horses is contributing toward the overall decrease in price for our lost equine partners. In fact, irresponsible breeders, owners and sellers of equines are doing the same. …I am a full-time, successful horse enthusiast and I am proud that our sport and pleasure horse industry contributes toward a significant part of Canada’s gross national product. I also live on a farm, raise horses and have been developing relationships and partnerships with horses and competing with them most of my life. The unquantifiable benefits of working with our equine partners are indeed the most important to me and many horsemen I know. My horse keeps me healthy, happy and active. My horse is my equine partner and I know when he or she shows fear, contentment and pleasure, and to coin the phrase used by riding instructors the world over, they can smell fear. To send an equine partner that has kept me healthy and happy, and kept my child safe for all those years, to slaughter instead of euthanizing it at home contributes toward hours of extra travel, stress and the smell of death in its nostrils before your partner finally rests. If that is the way you treat a partner, I would like to use this letter as a warning ….Heidi EijgelPincher Creek, Alta.
Support legislation
I would like to respond to Stewart Wells’s letter (Open Forum, June 17, “User pay, user vote.”)Mr. Wells continues to prove that he is still confused about Bill C-27 by claiming that this legislation is adding other larger voters to the voting list.The bill is short and has two main provisions; that producers will receive their payments faster, and a change that ensures that active producers are the ones voting in the Canadian Wheat Board elections. Both provisions are supported by the CWB.He also cites the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and the Saskatchewan Canola Growers Associations as prime examples of how the CWB should be structured. Although he points out that these organizations do not have minimum-tonnage restrictions, he fails to mention that people are not forced to participate in these organizations and that these organizations do not dictate the price and delivery points to their members.Furthermore, these organizations exist in open markets. Because of this, canola and pulse crops have increased significantly in both acreage and profitability over the last decade. Clearly, farmers are showing which market structure they prefer by the crops they grow.I call on Mr. Wells to join with the CWB, farm organizations and industry associations in supporting this legislation. Our Conservative government is listening to real farmers and is responding with practical legislation.David Anderson,MP, Cypress Hills-Grasslands, Parliamentary Secretary for the Canadian Wheat Board,
Global warming queries
Mr. (Robert) Wright addresses the subject of climate change on April 1 (Open Forum, “About carbon”) and April 22 (“Climate change”).First-hand temperature records are spotty at best 100 years ago. The world is older than that.For instance, what was the world temperature when Greenland was green? What was the world temperature when trees grew in the Arctic? Glaciers have been receding in Jasper since 1880. Mr. Wright says global warming is “most likely motivated by the greenhouse effect.” Most likely is thin science. The level of CO2 was 00.0316 percent of the atmosphere in 1959. In 2010, the level was 00.0391 percent. The level of CO2 has been estimated as high as four percent of the atmosphere before it got buried in oil, coal and other deposits.The connection between CO2 and global warming is “most likely.” The connection between global warming and climate change has not been demonstrated. Does global warming influence the jet stream? Does global warming influence El Nino? Mr. Wright… states the prairie plants bloom earlier than before. Plants frequently get confused by an early spring. Why is climate change always viewed as bad? Cultures have had experience with doomsday criers in the past. Perhaps Canada would be better off if it was a little warmer. Trying to keep animals alive and productive when it is 40 below zero is not easy…..Weather disasters are not new. They do fuel climate change hysteria.Clark Lysne,Wetaskiwin, Alta.
Controlling food supply
I recently watched the DVDs The Future of Food and Food, Inc. and suggest that everyone, especially farmers, should watch this very informative material. You also can Google The Future of Food and watch it on your computer if you choose.It now becomes a little clearer for me to understand why the Conservative Party of Canada, a big business party, is so intent on delivering the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board to the multinational grain companies, Monsanto and the like.The board is a small player on the world scene but still a significant irritant to those that want to control the food supply.I know that lobby groups and the powers that be have a lot of resources, so I suspect that there will be a rich reward when the goal is finally achieved.Boyd Denny,Saskatoon, Sask.
