Revolt applauded
I was glad to see in the Producer (March 9) that (Saskatchewan premier Lorne) Calvert finally did the right thing and reduced the school taxes us farmers have been paying on our farmland.
Kudos to those first five rural municipalities who had the courage to draw a line in the sand and take a stand. And to all the other RMs who joined the tax revolt, thank you. Some had ratepayers meetings to decide, some councils took the risk and voted to join.
Now the sad part. The RM my farm is in did not join the tax revolt. The reason I was given by the administrator was the RM council were afraid of what might happen to them if school boards started taking legal action.
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To this I say what if all our fine young men who fought and many who died in World War One and World War Two had said or thought the same as you councillors? Where would we be now?
The council of the RM of Grayson, you know who you are. You will all get the same benefits as the RMs who did something about the high school taxes. But remember yours is an elected position, or maybe you will have the courage to do the right thing and resign from council.
– Albert Kuntz,
Yorkton, Sask.
APAS superior
It seems obvious that Robert Thompson of Alticane who penned the letter “Corporate profit” in your March 9 issue does not totally understand Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
APAS was started by the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities to be a grassroots farmers organization to represent all farmers of Saskatchewan.
The people working in APAS are producers of all types of livestock, grain, poultry and organic. They are not corporation puppets. They work very hard for all of our producers and in my opinion are doing a very fine job.
Mr. Thompson is very correct with his observation that Saskatchewan school tax is not the reason for bankruptcy. However, the Saskatchewan school tax system has been noted as unfair as far back as Tommy Douglas.
When your back is hard pressed to the wall, you pick on an inequality to have it solved.
Thank goodness for the efforts of SARM, SUMA (Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association), APAS and others for the pressure upon the provincial government for some movement towards a total solution.
I would hope that Mr. Thompson as well as any other producer in the province talk to an APAS representative. You may find they are fellow agriculture producers working hard for all our benefit and they are not corporate puppets nor politically biased.
One voice, APAS, is far superior to any single-minded group. One voice with many behind it is heard more clearly than many voices with one behind each. Consider it.
– D. Jansen,
Leroy, Sask.
Vested interests
Farmers should take note of “Ag centre criticizes Easter report” (WP, Feb. 23) about how farmers need to be empowered in the marketplace. Also the George Morris Centre based in Guelph, Ont., is about to craft a replacement for the ag policy framework that is more industry and market oriented than the Easter proposal.
Also the farm leaders advisory group, FLAG, in Saskatchewan is to work with industry and key industrial players to be involved.
It just seems like all of these players are groups that have a vested interest in getting farmers’ produce for as near zero price as possible. Why are they not involving farmers in these advisory groups? Then true progress could be made in the revival of rural Canada.
Farmers know exactly why our economy is faltering. It’s lack of parity price for farmers in relation to the money made by these very groups and they will not relinquish power by giving the farmer a fair market price. Why would they ? They own the free market.
With only two percent of the population farming, there is no way farmers can get a fair market price. No population will listen so it is up to the two percent of the population that is farming to convince the rest of the citizens that it is more important to the citizen (that) the farmer gets parity. …
We must all stick together and demand parity for the farmers or face a depression the likes of which will make the Dirty Thirties look like a picnic lunch. I hope we all have the fortitude to do the right thing to save our children and grandchildren from a third world lifestyle.
– R. E. Kennedy,
Simpson, Sask.
CWB monopoly
What is wrong with having two systems of marketing grain? Why is the Canadian Wheat Board so afraid of a dual marketing system?
I don’t understand. What is wrong with competition? It only makes everyone work harder. A monopoly can do whatever it wants. Why can’t we have both? Why are they so scared?…
I know many people whose money from CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) went to the CWB to pay advances back, plus many dollars of interest. They get nothing to help operate because it is owed to a crown debt.
Speaking of CAIS, does anyone know how many people are employed across Canada to administer this program? Those wages alone would have subsidized the farmer. Never mind the cost of the forms and catalogues they had to print.
The people they hired were as green as us at doing CAIS. I had to apply for adjustments because of mistakes made by them and then wait for months for corrections to be done.
Now after two or three years of learning to do it on my own, it is harmonized with income tax and we have to pay the accountant to do it.
Just take the damn thing out and quit all this complicated B.S. that is thought up by some educated computer whiz, who is helping the government to make it look like unemployment rates are low by hiring all these people.
There is no real concern here for the farmer, especially when people have to pay back thousands of dollars they have already paid bills with.
– Bernice Tiringer,
Spiritwood, Sask.
Lots to lose
On Feb 4, The Edmonton Journal carried an article titled Sowing Seeds of Change, in which opponents of the Canadian Wheat Board once again make many false statements. “The change” (open market) “will lead to better prices and returns, access more markets, and a wider window to take advantage of any surge in prices.”
This is completely false. The CWB markets farmers’ grain to over 70 customers and it blends grades when advantageous to producers. Independent studies have shown that CWB has returned premiums of $72 million annually to barley producers … and wheat premiums of $265 million annually to wheat producers….
“The Tories campaigned on marketing choice and we expect them to follow through on that commitment,” said Blair Rutter, executive director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. He further states, “it’s a change that’s long overdue. Nobody’s getting rich under the current system, and there’s nothing to lose trying something different.”
Guess again, Mr. Rutter. Farmers have much more to lose. If the CWB loses its single desk selling monopoly, farmers will lose their market power to get the best possible prices for their product. They will lose the market development of the CWB. (It) continually shows purchasers of our grains how to best utilize them. We will lose the transparencies of our marketer, we will lose a strong opponent of GM wheat, we will lose blending premiums, we will lose the Canadian Grain Commission that offers undisputed grading to producers, and we will lose the fair allocation of producer cars.
If farmers give up the CWB’s mandate over wheat or barley marketing, we can’t get it back. Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement says that if we turn over control of (and profits from) wheat or barley marketing to grain companies, we can’t reverse that decision without paying those companies billions in compensation for lost profits, present and future.
Despite what Stephen Harper’s Conservatives and their lapdogs the WCWGA say, farmers have one hell of a lot to lose. There is no such thing as a dual market. You either have the CWB marketing our wheat and barley, or we have Cargill, ADM, Louis Dreyfus and ConAgra selling the grain and pocketing the profits.
– Joyce Neufeld,
Waldeck, Sask.
