Board concerns
All Saskatchewan residents, rural and urban, should be concerned about the attempt to undermine the functions of the Canadian Wheat Board.
The wheat board brings $800 million a year into the prairie economy. This money fuels both rural and urban Saskatchewan.
If the wheat board loses its single desk capacity, we will see an economic disaster equivalent to the loss of $8 billion since the elimination of the Crow transportation rates over a decade ago.
As we all know, this plunged the prairie farm economy into an economic depression that we have never recovered from.
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The only ones who will gain in the destruction of the wheat board will be the multinational global grain companies such as Cargill.
Rural and urban people must send strong messages to prime minister (Stephen) Harper and his Saskatchewan MPs such as David Anderson that they should be working for the best interests of the people of the Prairies.
They should not be undermining the Canadian international marketing organization, run by farmers, that works for farm communities, not against them.
– Don Kossick,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Speak for CWB
We, the farmers of Western Canada, have no one to blame but ourselves for the way the recent problems involving the Canadian Wheat Board have evolved.
First, we quietly allowed Ralph Goodale and the Liberal government to eliminate the Crow Rate.
Then, without a whimper, he destroyed the two price system whereby the millers paid a premium for milling grade wheat.
We all know that allowing the railways to abandon many branch lines and force farmers to load their own grain – the wheat pool being reinvented – has been a financial boon to the railways but a disaster for the farmers.
Now we have the secretary to the agriculture minister telling us to get rid of the wheat board by saying we need choice.
It’s like putting a skunk in the chicken coop to take care of the chickens.
We need another plebiscite. Do we want the Canadian Wheat Board or not? And not a plebiscite written by the jolly young lady from Mossbank.
It’s time the silent majority stand up and speak up. All members of Parliament must be told very clearly by all those farmers wishing to maintain a strong and powerful CWB what they want and why.
We can’t sit by and watch without at least voicing our opinion.
– Merle H. Sproule,
Lafleche, Sask.
Get ‘er done
Some of the recent Canadian Wheat Board debate is revolving around a producer plebiscite for change.
Pro CWBers and the CWB itself are advocating that the Conservative government hold a plebiscite on change to the CWB legislation.
Isn’t that basically about farmers choosing what they want? It appears to me that is exactly what the Conservatives intend to do – give farmers choice.
Market choice is the government’s promise and mandate. This spring’s CWB producer survey indicated 59 percent of producers wanted market choice.
So what’s the hold up? Another vote, another study?
Let’s get ‘er done.
– Richard Strankman,
Altario, Alta.
Pricing options
Canadian Wheat Board advocates point to pricing options such as fixed price wheat contracts for new crop based on Minneapolis futures, which average $6.34 in store Vancouver for the week ending July 14 and appear to be a definite advantage over the current pool return outlook, which is presently 70 cents lower.
In reality this is a limited opportunity ending Oct. 31. Also we must be satisfied with daily closing prices and cannot bid market highs or stop losses as with regular futures.
Last year producers were able to store grain into the new crop year and sell it higher on a fixed contract, but not anymore. It seems every time someone figures out how to make an extra dollar on grain, a door closes in our face. …
Stephen Harper, I am asking you: when will this government become accountable to farmers? What are you doing with our money?
– Louis K. Berg,
Sedalia, Alta.
Railway profit
Last week I heard the announcement of the profits of the Canadian National Railway. It was $1.6 billion last year. This is totally obscene…
In the year 2000, the CNR made a profit of $800 million. The money that the farmers have paid out as freight could have been used to begin building their own railway.
The Canadian Wheat Board should be letting out tenders for the movement of grain to port. Let the two railways compete for the movement of grain.
Do you remember the farmers’ strike in the summer of 1946? The farmers stopped the delivery of any farm products. After a few weeks, the government raised prices all around and stopped the strikes.
I think the western farmers should consider a strike.
– Egon Fischbuch,
Spennymoor, Alta.
Cars and guns
In Michael Mowchenko’s letter “Facts are in,” (Open Forum July 27) it is difficult to determine if he is serious or facetious.
In any case, he is comparing grapes to cucumbers or something like that. He compares nine traffic deaths per month to 2.6 firearm deaths per month in Saskatchewan, therefore, cars kill more people than guns do, and in his mind the gun registry is working.
Think about this for a minute. Do people drive their firearm to work every day or on vacation down the highway?
Does Mr. Mowchenko get onto his firearm and drive it to the corner store?
Comparing deaths on a daily use basis, one could say that cars kill less people than firearms do. In reality, it is not the car or the firearm that kills people.
Rather, it is the senseless person behind the wheel or behind the trigger.
Is the National Firearms Registry working as Mr. Mowchenko thinks? Four RCMP officers were killed in Alberta, a policewoman in Quebec, and recently two RCMP officers in Saskatchewan, all with long guns and all since the long gun registry went into effect.
Handguns are used in almost all gun deaths despite the National Handgun Registry that has been in effect since 1934. Usually, firearms used in crime are not registered. Are the traffic deaths the result of unregistered cars?
Mr. Mowchenko advocates a national car registry. Well, cars have been registered across North America for over 80 years by provincial and state governments. The police across Canada and the U.S. can access the system and within minutes determine the ownership of a car, so in effect, there is not only a national registry but an international registry.
Even the criminals for the most part are registering their cars, except when they are in the business of stealing them.
The registration of cars does not save lives and the registration of guns does not save lives either.
Births are registered and in the final analysis, old age kills more people than anything else, and that gets registered as well.
– Don Budesheim,
Grande Prairie, Alta.
Farmers silenced
The law requires that farmers vote on any major changes to the Canadian Wheat Board which might dismantle single desk marketing, yet the Conservatives appear headed to change or ignore this law, which would remove the voice of farmers.
They do so in spite of the fact that farmers have repeatedly elected board members who have almost unanimously supported single desk selling.
Last week the Conservatives held a closed door meeting in Saskatoon and invited only those who were already against single desk marketing.
If what they are doing is so good, why are the majority of farmers being silenced?
I think I know the answer to this question but it will take the voice of those that support the single desk in letters, faxes and e-mails to bring back this little bit of democracy and save our board from extinction.
– Boyd Denny,
Saskatoon, Sask.
