Lost touch
It appears Saskatchewan Wheat Pool wants to satisfy some eastern investors and restructure again by giving control to non-farmers.
It’s ironic that in the last restructuring the governance of the company was known and the investors still invested and now management wants to take all effective control away from farmers a full three years ahead of schedule.
Three years, which could have been used to pay down the debt and then refinance.
This move shows that SWP management has little faith it can make profits and thus is looking for new bosses to whom it can sell dreams of profitability for the next few paycheques.
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Although investment is needed, SWP executives have missed the most obvious investor, the producer. The first share conversion drove many people away and so will this proposal. To not understand this is to not understand why the Pool was created.
In addition, actions of SWP management and elected officials have many times soured producers. From telling producers they could not understand an issue and therefore they wouldn’t be allowed to vote on it, to not getting involved in the farm education tax issue because the SWP doesn’t own farmland, has angered many producers.
However, what has really soured many producers with SWP is its continual position of being offside with producers’ wishes. …
You cannot continue to alienate your customers, the producers, and still expect to have their loyalty and ultimately their business. SWP will continue to slide until it realizes this point, or a board with some guts, initiative and determination, similar to the founding members, is put in place.
The time of fence-sitting, SWP-management-friendly directors is long gone. If the initiative succeeds, it just goes to show that if a director has the wool pulled over his eyes continually, he eventually goes to sleep. …
Ñ Bill Rosher
Kindersley, Sask.
BSE questions
I was raised on a farm and still farm today, raising crops and cattle and enjoy every minute, good or bad.
Since the announcement of a confirmed case of BSE in Canada on May 20, 2003, my wife and I have carried on farming, weathering the storm just as many others across the country.
The announcement of another Canadian cow with BSE has compelled me to speak out.
I’m tired of hearing science will get us out of this predicament. So much verbal diarrhea. Did not science get us into this mess? What bunch of scientists thought it would be all right to grind up unsalable animal parts and feed them back to ruminants? I suppose they figured it would save disposal fees.
I thought we had a feed ban in this country, specific materials not entering animal feed.
Are the people at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency blind? Did they not see what was going on in England before 1997?
Almost everything always comes down to money. I expect money has more to do with the border opening than science. I suspect cattle bought in Canada are wanted delivered either in a box or on the hoof. After all, they are bought and paid for….
It is encouraging to see many trying to start or expand existing Canadian-owned slaughter facilities. Their faith and belief in the livestock industry is commendable. Let’s not forget the bison, elk and sheep people. Their doors to the world would have been closed as well.
In (a few) months a new crop of calves should be on the ground, the crocuses will have bloomed, the grass should be greening and hopefully some of this BSE storm will be behind us all.
Ñ Harold Dustow,
Lloydminster, Sask.
Reinstate Crow
Wayne Easter, (parliamentary secretary for rural issues) was in the Peace country recently, in Fort St. John, B.C., holding one of many seminars across Western Canada regarding possible solutions to low grain and commodity prices in agriculture.
We gave him a good welcome and I believe if anyone in Ottawa can press our button for fairer prices, it is him. I admire him for his forthrightness, strength of character and determination for a better future in our industry.
Many ideas came forward but I focused on the demise of the Crow Benefit (rail subsidy) to farmers that was set in perpetuity by government then in power, perhaps as long ago as 100 years, to get grain to port at a reasonable cost, as we were so far from port.
This was taken from us in 1995 suddenly, when our commodity prices were high. …We were sucked in that the Crow rate was no longer necessary. It has since cost my farm in excess of $100,000 farming 1,000 acres.
Think about this and what it has cost you, the farmer and reader of this letter.
And food for thought, not since 1995 have trains of grain been shipped from the Prairies as far west as Alberta to Thunder Bay and then hauled back west to Vancouver. This was a common occurrence previous to 1995. The Crow rate was taken from us for reasons beyond our control and knowledge.
The extra freight we now pay is in the region of 35 cents per bushel. You do not have to be an accountant to work out our losses.
Ñ Nick Parsons,
Farmington, B.C.
Signing up
Re: Producer proposes Alberta wheat board (WP, Jan. 27).
This was an interesting article. It got me thinking. I’m a supporter of the Canadian Wheat Board. The CWB is a good concept but it has its flaws. Perhaps it would be better to start from scratch and get this right.
The Alberta Wheat Board should first be set up as a co-op, where it answers to its members. Second, it should control domestic markets to begin with, expanding into foreign markets later. It should control wheat, barley and corn.
If the Americans start dumping corn into Canada, the board could ask that a tariff be imposed. The board should offer quarterly pools or maybe even monthly pools on grains it handles. The board should encourage domestic value-added ventures instead of seeking foreign markets for our grain.
The board should also encourage foreign markets to buy our pork and beef products instead of our grains.
We are always told that we have to produce cheaper food. There comes a time when we can no longer produce cheaper food. As farmers we then have to get more for the food that we do produce.
That time is now. This board has to be put together by farmers, not governments. The problem with governments is they are not economic leaders and they can only react to issues in front of them.
I would like to buy a share in this Alberta Wheat Board. Where do I sign up?
