Enforce law
letters
To the Editor:
There are those who do not agree with the actions taken by Bruce Croal when he apprehended some chaps who were allegedly in the process of borrowing some of his gasoline.
On the other hand it can also be said that a legal system that does not uphold moral absolutes is negligent in its duty.
We have sown the wind and a lot of poor innocents are being caught in the whirlwind. Columnist Verna Thompson has suggested that Louis Lamour has the solution.
Read Also
Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
The problem? In the words of another western novelist, Ernest Haycox: “For always in a land where the law goes to pieces the first rule is the rule of self preservation.”
– Tom Lamont,
Maidstone, Sask.
Keep CWB
To the Editor:
… I am all for “freedom” as set out in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But when a desire for “freedom to choose” becomes an obsession that overpowers rational thinking, we are in big trouble.
I would like the Farmers for Justice and any others that support destroying the Wheat Board to ponder this … tomorrow, there is a plebiscite of all farmers in western Canada and the majority vote to get rid of the Wheat Board. The next day, 120,000 former permit book holders try to sell their grain into the U.S. We are talking 30 to 40 million metric tonnes. I learned something in Economics 101 called the Law of Supply and Demand. Seriously now, how long do you think there would be a premium in the U.S.?
Another thing to contemplate … not that many years ago the Americans were screaming “foul” because we were shipping too much durum south.
How long do you think it would take before the U.S. closed its border?
We all know how well free trade goes over with the Americans when it isn’t working to their advantage.
So we can’t sell all our grain to the U.S., we no longer have a Wheat Board to export our grain internationally and I don’t think too many buyers in China are going to accept a call from Mr. Sawatzky or a farmer from Lumsden.
Who is going to sell the 25 or 30 million tonnes that we can’t sell to the U.S.? I would suspect the grain companies will step in here. We have what, maybe 10 to 15 different companies?
They will all need their own international marketing agents, product development people, market development people, quality control people, etc., etc. At what cost? You can bet the cost will be passed on to the farmers.
Now let’s talk about the way the open-market system itself works. By its very nature prices are low in the fall and higher in the spring (Law of Supply and Demand again).
Those of us that have payments to make and bills to pay in the fall will have to sell our grain for whatever it’s worth at that time. No Wheat Board – no cash advance, no interim or final payment later in the year if the price goes up. What you get when you sell is all you get.
Those farmers (usually the big farmers) that can wait until spring to get the best price will. The rich get richer, the little guys fall by the wayside.
It’s time for these farmers that want to get rid of the Wheat Board because it’s “their right to market their own grain” to do some long hard rational thinking that isn’t blinded by an obsession with “freedom.” Once the Wheat Board is gone, for better or worse, we aren’t getting it back (GATT Agreement).
One last thing. In response to Barry Wilson’s comments in the June 6 issue of Western Producer, I am only one farmer but I support the Wheat Board.
I may not be the army that Mr. Goodale needs to save the Wheat Board but I do believe I am part of the silent majority that show their support for the Wheat Board every day by delivering grain on their permit books. We don’t make big headlines but we are still there.
– Glen Nunweiler,
Eatonia, Sask.
Single desk
To the Editor:
The Canadian Wheat Board markets all western Canadian wheat and barley for export and domestically for human consumption. It costs the CWB only 4.7 cents per bushel to market farmers’ grain. All profits from sales go to farmers.
Because all western Canadian grain goes through a “single desk,” the CWB can offer specific, consistent quality and supply to customers. That means that the CWB gets the best price for western grain farmers.
In fact, a recent study by three economists showed that from 1980 to 1994, the CWB got a premium of $265 million per year. That means the CWB, due to its single-desk selling system, got farmers an extra $13.35 per tonne per year.
Farmers have already seen what happens when the CWB loses its marketing monopoly. In 1993, the federal government allowed other grain traders to export Canadian barley into the U.S. The price for malting barley dropped from $159 per tonne to around $107 to $114 per tonne. There was no corresponding drop in the price of beer. As soon as the Wheat Board regained its export monopoly, the price returned to $160 per tonne.
One can also look at what would have happened if farmers had sold feed barley out of the combine into the open market. A Lethbridge producer who had sold No. 1 feed barley in mid-September into the U.S. market would have received $112.53 per tonne or $2.45 per bushel. Due to the CWB, they have already received $147.31 per tonne or $3.21 per bushel, with an estimated pool return (EPR) of $165.31 per tonne or $3.60 per bushel. (All numbers are after deductions).
Therefore the CWB saved those farmers over $52 per tonne or $1.15 per bushel.
If the same farmer had been selling wheat (1CWRS 13.5) in mid-September the U.S. spot market would have paid $211.31 per tonne or $5.75 per bushel. The estimated final price is $240.29 or $6.54 per bushel.
It seems to us that the Canadian Wheat Board is doing a first class job of marketing farmers’ grain and their power should be expanded.
– Henry and Joyce Neufeld, Waldeck, Sask.
Not amused?
To the Editor:
John J. Hamon (June 13 Open Forum) was only “somewhat” amused at my letter? Ouch! And to think there was a time when I was completely amusing.
I don’t mind making it known that I’m “somewhat” puzzled when anyone advocates that all or part of Canada meekly join the United States of Mickey Mouse, for whatever reason.
Of course if you could guarantee that gas there is always cheap, wheat always sells for at least $8 a bushel, that there are no farmers in financial difficulties and no thousands of poverty-stricken people walking the streets of crowded cities, that their politicians are all honest Ð ?
– C. Pike,
Waseca, Sask.
