Letters to the editor

ChrŽtien strategy

To the Editor:

Said the little guy from Shawinigan,

“Now is da time to begin again,

We must ‘ave a vote,

Though you may need a boat,

Wid which to spread da shenanigan!

As da Queen is coming in June,

We must ‘ave our election real soon,

So dat I can go on da Rock,

And join in da talk,

Wid a fresh new Government tune!

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While da Reform and da Tories do fight,

As to who will prevail on da Right,

Our place in da middle,

Is becoming a riddle,

Since Alexa has turned on da light!

Though da Deficit numbers look great,

Employment remains in a terrible state,

So wid belts getting tighter,

Things will not get brighter,

And we could end up wid a Mulroney fate!”

So with Manitoba awash in a puddle,

And the Unity question a muddle,

Will the public mind,

Continue to be blind,

That except for Alexa, they are all fuddle-duddle?

– Philip Lindenback,

Weekes, Sask.

Defend SPI

To the Editor:

I am writing in support of our Provincial hog marketing agency, Sask Pork International.

It is under attack from greedy large producers who want to go it alone and the hell with the small to medium family operations like mine.

Now to make matters worse, the Provincial Government is adding fuel to the fire with the latest legislation to empower them to scrap marketing boards.

The immediate result of this action is layoffs at Moose Jaw Packers, with the possible loss of 137 jobs! I, like many other producers in the south, ship my hogs to Moose Jaw and will suffer financially. There are about 2,000 hog producers in Saskatchewan, the vast majority who support the single-desk selling monopoly enjoyed by SPI.

Why is this government, while encouraging expansion of the hog industry, at the same time trying to tear it down?

It is a fact that we need the strength of a united single-desk seller like SPI to negotiate a reasonable price with the large powerful corporations where we have to sell our hogs.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Eric Upshall, has publicly supported the CWB and at the same time is prepared to see the end of SPI. Are not both organizations founded on the same fundamental principals of co-operation, the traditional NDP approach! Has this government lost its way? Come on, Mr. Upshall, let the democratic process take place; give the pork producers a say in their own destiny; let us have a free vote on this crucial decision.

This is our industry and our future you’re meddling with. We have the right to decide for ourselves and our families.

– Frank Mycock,

Craven, Sask.

Normal practice?

To the Editor:

In your April 17 article “Hog barn complaint dismissed; farmer vows to fight on”, we read that the Saskatchewan Agricultural Operations Review Board rejected the nuisance complaint made by Leo Kurtenback regarding the odor originating from a mega hog barn.

The Board ruled that the hog operation was up to and exceeded the industry standards. Industry standards are lumped under the term “regular farming practices” but this is the unexamined crux of the conflict, – when did raising hogs on the farm entail digging huge open pits, to store liquid hog waste all year, become a “normal” or “regular farm practice?”

Thousands of small hog producers have operated for a long time with few complaints from the neighbors.

The barn pits were emptied by the farmer’s own tractor and small tanker and the waste spread on the owner’s fields.

That would generate some odor for a few days but it wasn’t a summer-long, gut-wrenching atmosphere carried by every wind to the surrounding homes without let up.

Huge reeking, earthen, open pits, holding millions of gallons of liquid hog waste was not a common farm practice and no amount of rhetoric or waffling can disguise that fact or that this waste management is not related to farming but has become a method to sustain a corporate, polluting, assembly line to churn out hogs – the neighbors and the community be damned.

Whatever the economic reasons that have been touted and actively promoted by Provincial authorities to encourage the growth of the mega hog barns, the down side hasn’t been analyzed – the cost to individuals and to the community as a whole, which among other costs, must bear the increased costs of road repairs when 35-ton spreading tankers beat the roads to dust.

The sheer volume, the millions and millions of gallons, at roughly 7,500 gallons at a time, must be hauled to distant fields, and/or (this is not uncommon) small land areas near the barn are overloaded by repeated applications. That saves on the high spreading costs but has other results for the land.

Municipal tax rates don’t reflect the added road-repair costs. The mega hog barns are taxed at the same rate as farm livestock outbuildings, not as the commercial ventures they are.

Disguised as farming, the mega hog barns are a commercial industry designed to return profit on investment with minimal outlay.

They destroy quiet, rural lifestyles, water resources and the cohesion of the community.

– Ellen Francis,

Silver, Man.

Canola gene

To the Editor:

Your article “Canola seed recalled” made many of my farming colleagues and me sad and thoughtful.

Obviously it is still very difficult to understand for companies like Monsanto what they are doing to mankind and future generations with their policy of chemical distribution and genetic modification.

To shorten up the whole procedure of placing chemicals and genes among human beings, maybe Monsanto should follow this suggestion:

Why don’t you simply change and modify the human genes so that the body itself will show no defensive reaction to Roundup?

By doing this, Monsanto would not have to follow all the different “detours,” i.e. canola or other grains!

Step No. 2 would be filling up the shelves of all leading grocery and food stores with Roundup!

Maybe the guys at Monsanto should already start thinking how this product could be used more in future, ie. as soup-mix, as a new ingredient in “pop” or simply as a milk replacement?

Enjoy your meal!

And for all of you who don’t like this horror cocktail at all, just phone your next certified organic farmer!

– Bert Jochymski,

Melville, Sask.

Right of way

To the Editor:

I read your articles about the “big turnaround” for CN Rail, from $1.1 billion loss to $142 million profit and “CN head honored for extraordinary leadership in guiding CN into the private sector and positioning it for renewal and growth” and it has been tormenting me ever since.

I have a little story to share with you and your readers about how CN Railways disposed of a strip of railway right-of-way down in the Patricia, Alta., area not far from Dinosaur Provincial Park and in the Eastern Irrigation District.

You see, this right-of-way was graded up, but no rails ever laid, back at the turn of the century when the railways were gearing up for settlers and there it has sat since.

The quarters of land were sold and developed, with some land being irrigated and some dry land. Our home quarter has a strip of right-of-way through it which is 100 feet wide and takes six acres out of the quarter and dissects a machine-levelled, border-diked, flood-irrigated field.

Last fall we were in for a big surprise – pheasant hunting opened in October and a gentleman came to hunt on his property, which property was the aforesaid CN right-of-way!

Sure enough, this man and his partner now owned approximately 10 miles of the CN right-of-way through our farms.

That was the first any of the affected landowners knew the right-of-way had been for sale, never mind that the land had been sold! Needless to say, we were very shocked and nervous about the situation.

Well, we contacted CN, Farmers Advocate, politicians, lawyers, the County of Newell, the Eastern Irrigation District and anybody else we could think of.

Some faxes, letters, phone calls, shuffling papers, pointing fingers, fibs, feeble excuses and what-not went on but the end result was the same: “the land was sold, the deal was done: too bad for you; you should have bought the land”.

Presently the railways are committed to offer former rights-of-way first to the provincial government; second, to the local municipal governments; third, to the adjacent landowners; and finally to the general public. This property involved about six landowners so we were not too numerous to contact. Why we were not offered the land, I do not know!

Believe me, if any of us landowners would have known this land was for sale, it would have been bought immediately so that someone else didn’t own property right down the centre of our fields or feed grounds or pastures.

No farmer would leave that kind of property open to the market.

So what can be done now? I challenge Mr. Paul Tellier, President and Chief Executive Officer of CN Rail, AKA Railroader of the Year by Railway Age magazine, to clean up this deal. … For anyone who has railway right-of-way through your property, heads up – this really happened!

– Frances Tobler,

Patricia, Alta.

CN line

To the Editor:

(Copy of letter to Frances Tobler, Patricia, Alta.):Thank you for your letter of April 14, 1997, concerning the sale of CN lands adjoining your property.

I initially reviewed this matter when it was brought to my attention by the Farmers Advocate of Alberta.

At that time, I concluded that this transaction was handled within the guidelines we have established for the disposal of surplus lands.

Our guidelines dictate that adjacent landowners be given the opportunity to purchase after they have first been offered to the federal, provincial or municipal governments or to a contiguous purchaser.

The unconstructed Medicine Hat-Hanna subdivision had been held by CN for many years with no recorded expressions of interest from any adjoining land-owners.

Last summer, we offered this property to the local municipality and were advised that they were not interested.

A purchaser subsequently came forward with an offer to purchase all of our remaining ownership in a single transaction. As we were of the opinion that there was little interest in acquiring the property by local residents (this fact has been confirmed in discussions with other adjacent owners), we accepted this offer.

I trust this letter explains how this sale was completed. I sincerely regret that this matter was not concluded to your personal satisfaction.

– Paul M. Tellier,

President and CEO, CN,

Montreal, Que.

Cars for logs

To the Editor:

During March, the media reported the slow movement of grain was due to a lack of locomotives and train crews.

In mid-March, I took a photo of six locomotives shunting log cars on sidings at Shellbrook.

On April 7, CN rail spotted several hopper cars on Pioneer grain’s siding at Shellbrook.

Two of the cars belonged to Prairie Malt of Biggar.

One other car had a bent gate and one car was missing a gate altogether.

The next day CN advised the agent here not to load Prairie Malt’s cars.