To the Editor:
The Western Producer’s Sept. 21 article “Railways rake in big profits” is a reminder that things are not always what they seem to be. The choice of headline aside (and the fat-cat connotation it would have for many people), the article itself tells readers a more balanced story – that the Canadian railway industry is not earning enough to afford the investments needed to do its job.
So, how big the industry’s earnings are depends on perspective: big compared with some very bad years; big because the industry is big.
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But a closer look at the Railway Association of Canada’s recent “Railway Trends” report – the basis for the Producer article – shows just how far the industry’s “profits” are falling short in relation to the effort expended to earn them.
As the Producer reported, 1994 total industry income of $567 million was the best since 1988. But that “big” 1994 number was 36 percent lower than the $897 million recorded in 1988. Meanwhile, 1994 workload was about 10 percent higher.
In five of the last seven years, the industry’s fuel, property and sales tax bill exceeded its income.
Raking in profits? More like working more and earning less.
– Don Bower,
Senior Manager,
Public Affairs,
CP Rail System,
Vancouver, B.C.
Farmer costs
To the Editor:
As a farmer in British Columbia I would invite Anne Charles, Kelowna, B.C. (Letter Aug. 31) to figure out the cost per member of a farm family to the general public in B.C.
We are in a very similar situation to the status Indians that cost her and other B.C. residents $9,750 per year.
My grandfather came to farm in Smithers, B.C., from Saskatchewan in 1921.
He always said it is God’s country, the Garden of Eden because of opportunity to work, own land, there is ample water, wood; life is much easier than it was in Saskatchewan.
Everything in B.C. was opportunity until the NDP came to power in 1972.
Suddenly we were placed on a reservation (the agricultural reserve) and overnight we became a ward of the state. The farmers felt that there were no more opportunities and went to Victoria to recover payments from the Provincial Treasury.
These were farmers who had never taken more than $100 in farm subsidies.
They could no longer look after themselves and needed payments of many thousands of dollars to stay in farming plus an easing of our tax burden.
I will list our similar tax exemptions and this was only done because of farmers enduring hardship as they were legislated to a life of government control though this one agricultural act.
Farmers’ benefits: no tax on many farm inputs; farmers get GST refunds; farm equipment moves free of custom duties.
We have most benefits of native Indians but own our land. The Regional District refuses to let us vote on some community projects, but farmers and Indians are after all wards of the state so how could they possibly know how to vote anyway?
The Indians have a bad deal from control. Our government realizes the natives own the land but are denied any control over it. Why are people so cruel?
Our land is so rich if we sold it to the Japanese, the United States, or Alberta we would be able to once again look after ourselves.
What a breath of fresh air. The only way the government can help the farmers is to free us, hopefully soon.
I have supported the NDP and I deserve to endure the torture.
George Bernard Shaw said:”If you are not a socialist when you are eighteen, you haven’t got a heart. But if you are still a socialist when you are forty you haven’t got a brain.”
– Terry Storey,
Smithers, B.C.
Gun registration
To the Editor:
The proposed Firearms Legislation was initiated by the Feds largely because of their serious lack of crime control and resulting severe public criticism. Generally the judiciary, law enforcement bodies and others offered support because of their involvement in crime.
The Feds also recognized that some 60 percent of the adult population neither owned nor employed firearms, hence support from that source could be expected.
Many countries have experimented with firearms registration and regulation with very substantially negative results. Most have given up almost entirely. Costs are exorbitant and confrontations are quite largely with law-abiding citizens, and not with the seriously offending parties, e.g. importers of firearms.
Registered and regulated firearms are lethal and they are always available. Also noted is that infinitely more personal attacks on people are made with knives and other sharp instruments than with firearms.
Firearms registration was undertaken here in 1940 and followed by legislation. Many of the laws were seldom if ever employed. Similarly the process now will have virtually little if any impact on crime.
Surely, prerequisites are essential e.g. a more thorough review of current crime concepts and of the current legislation or the lack of it. A start could be made with the Young Offenders’ Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A conclusion could be in favor of some form of registration and control but as indicated it would lead “down the road” to nowhere.
– D.A. McKenzie,
Winnipeg, Man.
