DONATING VITERRA
To the Editor:
For two broadcasts, the CBC radio mentioned something about Viterra cutting its ties to the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. The news item continued for the rest of the day but that line was missing. Perhaps someone told them that Viterra once was the SWP.
My reason for writing, however, was the recent guilt trip Viterra invented to pull on holders of common shares in Viterra. It’s been a little joke among a few of us when we pull our Viterra shareholder cheques out of our mailboxes that I, a very small landowner, will receive a 75 cent cheque while the larger landowners receive 15 cent cheques. Some weeks ago we began to see on bulletin boards or to receive in the mail the suggestion from Viterra that we holders of common shares donate them to Telemiracle.
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Well, who could say no? Only really nasty people, right?
I wrote to ask Viterra if they had suggested to all their holders of preferred shares that they turn all their shares over to Telemiracle. Could it be that Viterra didn’t want the expense of say, over $20, to send out each one of those itty bitty cheques?
I did not turn over my shares. Call me nasty.
Does it really matter if Cargill gets into bed with the Conservative Wheat Board? Was Viterra really Canadian? Who owns all those preferred shares? It’s too late for the peasants, or so it seems at present.
At the end of Kevin Hursh’s March 8 column he wrote, “An interesting experiment is about to begin.”
And guess who will be the lab rats.
– C.D. Pike,
Waseca, Sask.
ROBO CALLS
To the Editor:
It is a known fact that the present prime minister was desperate to win his majority. Therefore, the decision to make calls of that magnitude had to come from the highest echelons of the party.
Their immediate denial and intimation that they were made by the other parties is just the first step. Once they are caught dead to rights, their immediate reaction will be to finger some poor little clerk in the organization and throw him to the wolves. Then they will be free to be very self-righteous and claim they were unaware, and grovel begging forgiveness, with the hope that makes everything right and we will go on as before.
This perfidy should not be allowed to happen, and the true guilty parties must be made to answer to Canadians for their crimes. Unless that happens, the disdain that the rank and file feel toward elections will only get worse. It must be resolved properly to safeguard our democracy. We can only hope the sacrificial lamb will have the intestinal fortitude to fight back.
– Jean H. Sloan,
Lloydminster, Sask.
PROPERTY RIGHTS
To the Editor:
As we go to an election in Alberta, I wanted to comment on power lines and property rights.
Our government has decreed the Bill 50 power lines should be built.
Let’s be clear. The people are expected to pay the entire capital cost plus nine percent interest over 30 or 40 years. The money is coming from Alta-Link, owned by Lavalin. The government wants to make the payments smaller for the first few years so the bills won’t jump up so greatly right away. Pay-interest-only deal, but you don’t own the lines. Alta-Link Lavalin does, for the purpose of transmitting power and making money for Lavalin. The role of the people is only to guarantee the principle.
In Alberta, there has been a campaign of front-page newspaper picture ads promoting power lines by Alta-Link and Atco. These picture ads are altered and generic. These ads are misleading at best and are intellectually dishonest.
This is the reality. Typical towers are 88 metres tall, with a dead zone of 200 metres on each side of the line, about 38 acres per quarter. The only use for the dead zone is agriculture, crops or pasture. Any houses or yards are to be gone. Too bad, take us to court.
The constitution of Canada does not enshrine property rights to any great extent. Property rights are a provincial jurisdiction. This is why you have these periodic bumps in property rights when some radical hotshot provincial minister decides to revamp the laws. Dave Barrett enacted the B.C. Land Reserve Act. Bump. Ted Morton and Bill 36.
This is a poor system. Ted’s legislation is why we see minister McQueen running the manure spreader full time trying to clean up the pile.
Please friends and neighbours, not only in Alberta, these things are too important to ignore. Question your candidate, get to know your MLA.
In Alberta, we have elected MLAs who do not know about property rights or power lines, and who pass bad legislation.
– Leo Bishop,
Airdrie, Alta.
PILE OF DEBT
To the Editor:
You might not realize it, but thanks to Greg Selinger’s NDP, every Manitoban is walking around with an extra $20,772 on their pile of debt — and it’s not from an extended Christmas shopping binge. This is the amount every single Manitoban now owes as their share of Manitoba’s $26 billion provincial debt.
Greg Selinger’s NDP is on course to add $2.18 billion to Manitoba’s provincial debt this year — money Manitoba families will have to pay back in the form of increased taxes, cuts to frontline services, or both.
The debt is increasing partly because Greg Selinger is on track to run a deficit of over $1 billion this year. This is on top of deficits of $298 million last year and $200 million the year before.
Just think about it: each family of four in Manitoba now owes over $83,088 through the provincial government, on top of their own credit cards, mortgages, student loans and lines of credit.
Selinger has tried to blame everyone and everything else for his mismanagement. He has blamed Mother Nature, pointing the finger at the flood of 2011.
This was a serious flood, but spending on the flood comprises only a small part of Selinger’s record deficit. He has tried to attack the federal government for a lack of support, even though Manitoba has received a record $35 billion from the federal government since 1999.
The NDP say they will balance the budget by 2014. They have never once considered a review of their spending practices. They refuse to take measures that could improve our economic performance, such as cutting red tape or joining the New West Partnership. With a deficit in excess of $1 billion right now, the only way the NDP will balance the budget is by raising taxes.
It’s time for Manitobans to tell this NDP government enough is enough. Today’s debt will be tomorrow’s taxes, and that day is fast approaching — April 17.
– Heather Stefanson,
Man. P.C. Finance Critic,
Winnipeg, Man.
RENAME CWB
To the Editor:
It seems anti-CWB monopoly producers aren’t real happy post-CWB monopoly. The choice, as in marketing choice, isn’t there for them yet.
And then there are the grain companies. Their contracts are confusing and lopsided to give the companies an advantage.
There are few options for different grades and protein levels. Handling costs are vague. Freight rates are vague. And even if companies are competing against each other, why can’t they have a one-form-fits-all contract system?
Hearing their frustrations is certainly good for a laugh. What do they expect? Surely they don’t expect the new organization that is going to give them choice will be the same as the CWB monopoly that gave farmers the advantage.
Then sobering reality returned. I’ve been dragged into the same pit under our “new democracy.”
Until the powers that be unveil the details of the new organization, we have no idea what to expect. While they are at it, they should get their own name. I would like to see the CWB name reserved for the monopoly, as the new organization has changed direction and is no longer farmer controlled. I’m concerned that, by the time the government is finished with what was a farmer-controlled organization, it and farmers’ money will go the same way as the now defunct Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
Because the CWB monopoly and the new organization are both referred to as the CWB, but in reality can’t be the same, perhaps the new kid on the block could be renamed the COB, Canadian Open Board. It is annoying having to figure out which organization is being referred to.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ritz and his followers didn’t, and still don’t, have a plan, let alone the “choice” plan, in place before eliminating a system that works for farmers.
– Lynn Sangster,
Assiniboia, Sask,
