Time question
There are people in Saskatchewan who are not aware that, approximately 30 years ago, the province of Saskatchewan passed the Time Act.
This legislation permanently moved Saskatchewan one hour ahead of their original designation of Mountain Standard Time, to adopt Central Standard Time year round.
We no longer have to flip flop and turn our clocks back in late October and set them ahead each spring in early April. No problem with travel. In those seven months of summer, we are aligned with Alberta and during five months in winter our clocks are the same as Manitoba.
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Downturn in grain farm economics threatens to be long term
We might look back at this fall as the turning point in grain farm economics — the point where making money became really difficult.
We thought we were the only progressive province. We’d solved the problem of time.
Now, once again a certain radical faction of uninformed individuals wish to impose a further manipulation of our clocks which would in reality force Saskatchewan to adopt a time during summer that is two hours beyond our original designated Mountain time zone, past Central time and into Eastern Standard Time, which is observed in Ontario and Quebec.
For those who live by the sun, we’d have lunch at 10 a.m. and dinner at 4 p.m.
This is a ridiculous idea, one that lacks any grain of common sense.
A reference map of Canada’s time zones can be found in your SaskTel directory.
Newfoundland Standard Time is a half hour ahead of the Maritime provinces who use Atlantic Standard Time. Quebec and most of Ontario operate on Eastern Standard Time.
For the past 30 years, the Central Standard Time zone consisted of a portion of Ontario (west of Thunder Bay), and all of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Alberta and the Northwest Territories are on Mountain Standard Time.
British Columbia and the Yukon operate on Pacific Standard Time.
For those individuals who want a longer evening for sports or recreation, have your local Chamber of Commerce pass a bylaw changing your business hours during summer.
The question of time was settled 30 years ago here in Saskatchewan. Accept that fact.
– Elsie Ellis,
Hazlet, Sask.
Working together
Edwin Bronsch of Tilley, Alta., in his Sept. 30 Open Forum letter, refers to Ralph Klein, Shirley McClellan and Albert Wagner as dinosaurs.
I certainly agree with him. They also richly deserve the title dinosaurs because they have not kept up to date in the real world of present day farm economics.
They seem to believe that the key to grain producers’ economic success lies in competing with each other instead of working together for each other’s mutual benefit through entities like the Canadian Wheat Board or farmer controlled co-ops.
They should take lessons from the mere handful of agro-corporations still existing today that supply and produce the huge amount of goods and services that we must have to grow our crops – machinery, fertilizer, herbicides, fuel, oilseeds and grain transportation services.
These agro-corporations obviously realized years ago that competition leads to ruin so they amalgamated, consolidated, bought out the competition to the point where now only two to four exist in each of the above mentioned agro-categories of essential goods and services.
They now are able to charge whatever the traffic will bear.
As a result, each year thousands of farmers are forced or choose to leave the land.
By working together rather than competing with each other, they reap mega profits while farmers face economic hardship and ruin.
– George E. Hickie,
Waldron, Sask.
No more help
The farmers of Alberta don’t want any more government help. We had all kinds of help to establish herds of elk, goats, ostrich, deer and buffalo, but the powers that be decided that establishing the herds was enough.
Therefore no incentive was given to establish marketing or slaughter of these animals. They could have been a viable commodity had there been some follow-up.
The beef farmers of Alberta were far luckier. The sharp pencilled boys in Edmonton decided that, to solve the marketing and processing of our beef, they would encourage the two largest processing companies in North America to come into the province.
The only problem was these lads were not playing fair. They decided to have their own cattle in feedlots and in this way control the price and supply. If they thought they were paying too much for the beef from farmers and feedlot operators, they would call in their own cattle.
All went well for several years until one “mad cow” was found in northern Alberta and the U.S. border was shut up tight for all live (Canadian) cattle.
The only thing marketed (since May 2003) was boxed beef, which the two companies marketed into the U.S. without any trouble.
When you consider that these two companies have made windfall profits – up to 300 percent better income in the last 16 months – a person would have to be naive in the extreme to think that these companies are on the side of the farmers and feedlot operators in getting the border open to live beef.
The grain farmers of Alberta have not been left out. The provincial government has spent millions of dollars to get rid of the Canadian Wheat Board.
In addition to that they convinced the federal government to get rid of the Crow Rate because it was said to favour Eastern Canada. Now we realize the Crow Rate was the only subsidy that was unassailable by the World Trade Organization.
If the wheat board goes, it looks as though our grain marketing will be turned over to the same people who have destroyed our cattle market.
The urban dwellers should not feel left out either. They can pay twice as much for their car insurance and billions of dollars for electricity and natural gas.
– George N. Scott,
Innisfail, Alta.
Whining
I recently listened to John Gormley on radio station 980 refer to “whining farmers.” Maybe he should have a program about whining Reginians.
While farmers are being taxed off their land, millions and millions of tax dollars were spent to build a new lake for Regina.
Did one of their dragon boats brush a reed on one of their important races?
What will taxpayers now have to do for Saskatoon? Build a new river valley?
– Hillis Thompson,
Moose Jaw, Sask.
Frozen crops
I would like to know how on earth the Producer could print your (story) on Oct. 14. (Canola’s Big Rebound).
Where do you get off by saying canola in our province was not frost damaged badly? I am from the Foam Lake area and we are devastated by the frost damage not just in our area but is very widespread north, south and east and west of here.
When you write an obviously unresearched story like this and the Western Producer is just as much to blame by putting in on front page headlines this paper is against the farmers 100 percent.
The urban people read your story and all they say is another crying farmer. You get your behind off your office chair and get out there to get the real truth.
Kelvington to Lemberg, if you can read a map, has guys that are not going to harvest canola because of the frost and you interview a couple of guys and say everything is great.
You must rewrite your story and put it on the front page of this paper after you get out here and see what is what. …
The only reason I am subscribing to this paper is for the ads and not to all the crap of inaccuracy that only hurts us more.
I am waiting for your reply and you can put this in your open forum column.
If I don’t hear from you or see this letter in open forum then I definitely know that you and this paper are just another bunch that are against the farmers.
See who will be crying when all the farmers go broke and you have to spend 75 percent of your wages to put some bread on the table.
Whoever did harvest canola, just ask what the yields were and the quality and maybe it will finally hit home.
– Konnie and Garry Wenc,
Ituna, Sask.
