Concerned?
Re: West Coast terminals lock out grain workers, WP, Aug. 29.
Regarding the grain workers being locked out, Mr. Mackay notes that
their goal is to increase wages, improve severance and early retirement
programs.
They sound so concerned for our health and welfare that they are
willing to starve the families and default mortgages to prove their
point.
Mr. Mackay belongs in politics, not in contract negotiations. The
biggest problem I see is that we now have part-time Americans running
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
our grain industry.
– William Sharma,
Port Coquitlam, B.C.
A sign
Ralph Klein and other Albertans who oppose the Kyoto Accord should take
note of two things.
1) The 2002 drought is being called the worst agricultural economic
disaster in Canadian history.
2) Climate change, almost certainly the cause of the extreme drought,
is directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels.
Though much of Alberta suffered greatly from dry weather, the irony
seems to be lost on many. Inventive ways to move away from reliance on
gas and oil must be devised. These should come from both within Alberta
and from Ottawa.
But to rebel against the Kyoto Accord itself, like George W. Bush is
doing, instead of putting effort into working creatively within its
bounds, is foolish.
I have a vision of a cartoon in my head. A man is standing beside an
oil refinery spewing smoke into the air. Next to this is a field of
dead cattle – no water, no grass. He looks up at the heavens asking,
“Why? Why?”
It’s an over-simplification, of course, but you get the picture.
We cannot change overnight, but we can change. Many rapid advancements
in technology, such as fuel cells, are coming to assist us. Kyoto gives
massive support to the development of new technology because it will
suddenly be needed and funded all the more.
– Howard Boldt,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Tag response
I must respond to many of the statements and arguments advanced by Mr.
Archie Shaver in his tireless campaign against the national
identification program.
Mr. Shaver is wrong to state that the decision to launch the national
identification program proceeded undemocratically. This program
proceeded directly as a result of the express wishes and direction of
every provincial cattlemen’s organization in this nation, as well as
the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
We have entered a new era where issues of food safety traceability and
animal health dominate. How can anyone who has read of the devastation
of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and FMD (foot-and-mouth
disease) declare that national ID is a waste of time?
How can anyone in Western Canada who is aware of recent incursions of
TB – and who should be aware of the fact that to date the herd of
origin of every single case thus far located has been successfully
completed instantly thanks to our program – still argue against it?
One could answer recent charges point by point but it becomes
repetitive to do so. But just a short list will suffice.
Mr. Shaver says there never was a compulsory ID system before in
Canada. There most definitely was and it existed all through the TB and
brucellosis eradication campaigns that began in the 1940s and lasted
until 1985. Producers had no choice at all in having their cattle
tested and tagged and, if necessary, removed for slaughter.
Mr. Shaver says we threaten and scare producers with reference to
diseases no one had ever heard of. In fact, we have never referred to a
disease that is not a ‘named disease’ or a common disease of livestock.
It is true that most cattlemen had never heard of BSE or mad cow
disease before 1990 but does that make it less of a concern?
In a recent letter, Mr. Shaver worries that putting our tags in cattle
may cause us to lose access to the U.S. market. This is totally false.
First of all, all animals that have been exported to the U.S. for the
last 50 years or more, except cattle for immediate slaughter, have had
to be tagged. The same applies to imported cattle.
The suggestion that any aspect of national ID could cost us access to
the U.S. market is wrong.
– Charles Gracey,
Ancaster, Ont.
Timely report
Brian Cross, thank you for your timely special report.
I work for a financing company in Ontario, but my customers are all
located in Northern Alberta. This often means we are divided by far
more then the physical distance between us.
Often it is easy to forget the hardship our western farmers suffer as
they battle an unforgiving climate and lacking social programs.
I rely on your paper to keep me informed about my customers and the
issues that matter most to them and your article is fabulous. I
especially appreciate the individual viewpoints you incorporated into
your study. These are indeed, the voices of my farmers, as I like to
refer to them.
The hurt, upset and despair I have heard all season in their voices is
echoed in your study.
Certainly, there are assistance programs in place to help, but as you
pointed out in your main article where you interviewed Kim Putnam in
Saskatchewan, “… any thought of upgrading the farm machinery is
unlikely.”
Who, then, is to keep our dealerships in business and myself gainfully
employed if our customers are unable to trade their now dated equipment?
This is a disaster that is having a ripple effect across the country
and my company has tried to be proactive in that regard, but with such
devastation, there is only so much that can be done.
I have forwarded the on-line link to your article to others in my
department and I want to thank you again for such a well-written effort.
– Sheila Borg,
Burlington, Ont.
B.C. hay price
I am a cattle producer in Prince George, B.C., where usually everything
is fairly predictable and easy to calculate from year to year. Then
comes the drought in the Prairies, mainly Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Because of the late, cold spring and very dry summer, we are in a
dilemma here also. This crisis means no water and no feed for winter.
Then comes the big “cull effect” to cut herd numbers to feed, and, in
turn (it) causes a large number of beef to hit the auctions. This large
number of cattle brings a glut to the market, which brings the price
down.
The price of cows drops and the price of feed goes up.
This brings the effect to Prince George. We also had a poor spring and
summer, so we harvested one half of the hay crop that we got last year.
I can usually get some of my own hay from leased land and buy enough to
get through the winter.
This year, however, when I went to buy hay the price was up a little
from last year, but I expected that.
While I was hauling hay locally, some buyers came in and jacked up the
price off the field to haul to Alberta.
The price started out at $35 a bale, then to $45, now to $50, and up to
$80 for the same bales. I can’t compete with these prices.
I can’t blame the hay producers for trying to get a good price for
their hay. The laws of supply and demand quickly set the price for feed
and grain.
So, I immediately decided to cull and cut down on my herd. I will seek
out feed or pay the high prices and will eventually end up with less
cows to feed.
I will also go into fertilizing and haying in a more aggressive way, so
I can raise my own feed, and if I have extra feed, I’ll get greedy like
the other producers of hay and gouge the market.
Where will it all end? Perhaps the collapse of the market.
I hope not.
Farmers will do whatever it takes to survive and the industry will
continue….
Next time you put a steak on the grill, think about the cost of getting
it there. Maybe I’m lucky. I have lots of leased pasture and plenty of
water available.
Maybe I’ll sell all my cows and calf share next year.
Or maybe I’ll sell all my herd and just make hay to sell until the
drought is over, when things return to the “good old days.”
Just one farmer’s opinion.
– Rick Johnson,
Prince George, B.C.
Liberal impact
When infrastructure is lost in a small rural community, blame is often
directed at the closest government or business owner. Not much thought
is given to the real cause of loss because emotion clouds the path of
correct analysis.
Such is the case with the upcoming closure, at the end of the year, of
the Empress Hospital – with the local population blaming the provincial
government for the closure. When the last two wooden crib elevators
closed their doors, once again most local residences blamed the owners
of the elevators – Pioneer Grain and Alberta Wheat Pool.
The true facts are that deregulation of the rail industry Aug. 1, 1995
directly caused the closure of the two elevators and indirectly the
closure of the hospital. Deregulation of the rail industry allowed the
railways to charge a lesser freight rate at mainline rail. This was an
automatic death notice to every wooden elevator in the prairie region
and a breach of trust by the federal Liberals, reversing the Crow Rate,
which was guaranteed in perpetuity.
The federal Liberals have had a less than favourable response to the
West ever since … adoption of a national “cheap food” policy….
Using taxpayers’ money coupled with the National Energy Program, the
infamous federal Liberal Marc Lalonde gutted Alberta of $60 billion
plus the compound interest from the early 1980s.
Since Aug. 1, 1995, Empress has lost both its grain elevators, its rail
line, 50 percent of its population, and now its hospital at the end of
the year. All this results from one carefully orchestrated change of
rail policy by the federal Liberals.
The West does not elect Liberals. What better way to purposefully
destroy the West than by eradicating all those industries which give
her viability: in Saskatchewan, the grain industry; in Alberta, the oil
and gas industry.
They even convinced Bud Olsen, the Social Credit MP for Medicine Hat
1957 to 1967 to cross the floor in that year …
How could anyone every consider voting Liberal …?
Let’s separate before Kyoto, or a better name would be National Energy
Policy Number Two.
– Dick Bicknell,
Empress, Alta.
