Bad habits
I see that Stephen Harper’s deputy, James Bezan, is picking up some bad habits from his boss on how to bully and belittle people.
I couldn’t believe it when Bezan picked on Bob Friesen, long-time president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, saying he was an insincere farmer representative because he is running as a candidate in an urban riding in the current federal election.
Say what you like about political parties, but attacking Bob’s record as a farmer representative is the lowest of the low.
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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.
I recall Bob standing up for farmers on kernel visual distinguishability when Mr. Bezan didn’t. Bob took the side of farmers on transportation issues when Mr. Bezan took the side of the railways.
And Bob always took the side of the farmers, when Mr. Bezan was aligned with the large multinational corporations.
Mr. Bezan, you would do well to look at Bob Friesen’s record on representing farmers and learn from it, rather than picking up the bad habits of your boss.
– Keith Ryan,
Rosser, Man.
Smoke screen
Re: Alan Guebert’s editorial Aug. 21 titled: “WTO message: our money, our rules.”
I want to say it was a great editorial and right to the point. My comment is about the paragraph where the U.S. would cut their subsidies from $48 billion to just $14.5 billion.
What I want to point out is that the U.S. wants everyone to believe they are giving so much up. Then the rest of the world, including Canada, must come on side and abandon their own farmers.
The facts are that the U.S. has never paid out the $48 billion in subsidies. In fact they have never paid out the $14.5 billion that they say they will lower the subsidies to.
Therefore this lowering of subsidies is just a smoke screen. What’s that saying? Figures never lie but liars figure.
Canadian farmers lost the Crow because of deception that the U.S. would give up subsidies if Canada gave up the Crow. What a farce.
Our Canadian government is still with the mindset to give away supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board to get a World Trade Organization deal.
I, for one, am very glad the WTO talks collapsed. Maybe most are seeing through all the smoke.
– David Bailey,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Little help
In regards to Leon Stang’s letter in the Aug. 14 Western Producer, I’ve been in contact with my MLA since the middle of June to see if the government would support its cattle producers like the Alberta government did.
I got an answer from the minister of agriculture office at the end of August, a resounding no.
Agriculture money will be spent on property tax relief (please do another government report of it first), crop insurance (which needs to be fixed but means little to cattle producers), and fixing roads (presumably for the Albertans to haul their cattle here.)
The loan given out by the Saskatchewan Party was just what I needed. At least with the NDP, farmers knew what to expect.
As for the feds, last December (federal agriculture minister) Gerry Ritz announced programs that would give a 400 head cow-calf farmer $38,500 in aid payments. My cheque must be lost in the mail somewhere.
The only thing Stephen Harper has done was wear that ridiculous costume at the Stampede a few years back. I taped it to the fridge door to cheer me up.
After wasting time to nominate and vote for both my MLA and MP, I can say that the only kind of voter support you deserve again is the kind Benito Mussolini got at the end of his career.
– Lammie Pavelich,
Kenaston, Sask.
Tangled web
Saskatchewan intergovernmental affairs minister Bill Boyd counts on public ignorance of what Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) is about and how it urged Saskatchewan to sign the Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) in order to expand trade and eliminate barriers between regions.
PNWER, using large investments from Big Oil, seeks ways to give U.S. companies the right to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board and other marketing boards and rewrite provincial and municipal policies that impede deep integration with the United States.
Members of PNWER include B.C. and Alberta, along with six states. Sponsored by Alberta, Saskatchewan will pay $35,000 annual membership.
When was there public consultation? Who gave Bill Boyd the mandate to sign PNWER?
TILMA represents a process whereby corporations or individuals can challenge regulations or programs in another province via the “mutual recognition” clause if they believe regulations restrict investment opportunities.
NAFTA’s Chapter 11 allows American corporations to sue the Canadian government if they believe Canadian crowns or public entities impede their profit making. Sound familiar?
All these agreements, including the Security, Prosperity Partnership (SPP) are about policy harmonization and investor rights….
Stephen Harper, a strong supporter of these agreements, must be laughing up his sleeve to see Saskatchewan hoodwinked into signing PNWER with no public endorsement.
Lorne Calvert’s public consultation on TILMA uncovered many reasons for his government not to sign it. Brad Wall waffled and finally said he’d not sign it either….
What a tangled web they weave when they practice to deceive.
– Joan Bell,
Saskatoon, Sask.
Land assessments
I am writing in response to the Aug. 21 article: “Farmer fights tax levy.” Further to my comments in the article, I would like to stress that the Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) has taken a number of steps to improve the transparency and efficiency of the assessment system and our assessment information….
For the future, SAMA is enhancing its ability to handle inquiries by developing the capability to make individual property assessment information available on our internet website at www.sama.sk.ca. This enhancement will include 2009 revaluation property information and will be developed by January 2009.
SAMA’s goal is for every property assessment to be accurate; however, errors can occur.
It is important that SAMA provide sufficient information to property owners. Owners can then understand how their assessments were determined, and how to appeal assessments if mistakes are evident or property characteristics have changed.
We believe the new initiatives we are taking will result in a better understanding of the assessment process, improved quality assessments, and more effective communication between SAMA and Saskatchewan’s property owners.
– Irwin Blank,
SAMA Chief Executive Officer,
Regina, Sask.
Gerry’s comments
After reading (federal agriculture minister) Gerry Ritz’s letter to the Editor of Sept. 4, while agreeing with Gerry that Stephane Dion’s proposal of carbon shift is the worst possible thing to happen to farming since the BSE crisis, I feel we have to call Gerry on some of his comments.
In his letter he said that $4.1 billion in payments were given out. As a cattleman, I can tell him that very little, if any, was given to the industries that needed it most, the cattle and hog industries.
Another thing he said is that the Conservatives have replaced the Liberal-designed Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program with AgriStability and AgriInvest.
Well, I hate to tell you Mr. Ritz, that these new programs are just CAIS with a new name. The flaws are still the same, the reference margins are still the problem as is the terribly slow delivery of the money if there was a payment.
Last but not least is the Conservative support for the supply management sector. I have nothing against this but then why is our ag minister trying to destroy the one supply management sector that has any bearing on Western Canada, the Canadian Wheat Board?
I know that you are hampered in your efforts by the bureaucratic system but really, Gerry, you have not done any better than our former Liberal government.
I hope that if your government gets a majority that you can finally put together an ag policy that actually makes sense and not just a smokescreen that gives you and your bureaucrats an excuse to do nothing.
– Carl Armbruster,
Cactus Lake, Sask.
Right-hand drive
Over the past two years we have seen a proliferation of right hand drive vehicles in Canada. They are designed for countries whose highway systems demand that their drivers keep to the left side of the road except to pass, exactly the opposite to our system.
We can only assume that these vehicles have been imported to Canada because they are cheap to buy and economical to drive.
Unfortunately, such vehicles are a dangerous mix with our right-sided highway system in Canada. (They) cannot safely pass another vehicle on Canada’s highways because the driver’s view is blocked.
On a straight stretch of road the driver must first swing over to the right shoulder of the road to peek around the vehicle ahead in order to see oncoming traffic, then weave back to the left to pass.
On mountainous or winding routes this practice becomes more dangerous …. Even more dangerous, and idiotic, is a right-hand drive vehicle blindly edging left, over the centre line for the driver to see if it might be safe to pass.
All of these passing techniques are unacceptable. They not only endanger the vehicle occupants but also the rest of the motoring public….
Right-hand drive vehicles are a hazard on our highways, therefore we urgently request that the ministries of transportation investigate the safety issues involved in their use on our streets and highways before further importation and licensure is allowed.
– Dave and Brenda Baker,
Millarville, Alta.
Accountability
I thought our Conservative government in Ottawa would not want to draw attention to its record on government accountability. I was wrong. 

The last pamphlet that I got from my MP, David Anderson, had this little gem in it: 
”Accountability: We promised to bring more accountability to the federal government. We delivered. The Accountability Act was one of our biggest priorities. We’ve brought good, accountable government to Ottawa.”
According to Democracy Watch, the Conservative Party of Canada had the best accountability policy. It promised 57 reforms. So what did the Conservatives deliver? The Accountability Act (Bill C-2) when it was introduced kept only 30 of the 57 promises.
But wait; there is still one of the 30 yet to be implemented. So the government has kept 29 of its 57 promises, or 50.8 percent. …
Maybe 50.8 percent is about all we should expect from this government.
– Bev Currie,
Swift Current, Sask.
