Fix marketplace; Poor choice; Deficit danger; Old days; Safe seat; CWB freedom; Tory projects; Nix the lock up; Viterra & ABB
Fix marketplace
It is time for the federal and provincial governments to step up to the plate and fix the deplorable crisis in the cattle industry.
Manipulation by packers and retailers leaves no money on the table for farmers and ranchers. Our returns need to come from the marketplace, but we have no market power.
Packer manipulation through captive supply and in the case of Nilsson Brothers, ownership of auction markets, feedlots and packing plants, creates a no-win situation for farmers and ranchers.
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Late season rainfall creates concern about Prairie crop quality
Praying for rain is being replaced with the hope that rain can stop for harvest. Rainfall in July and early August has been much greater than normal.
The focus of governments and beef organizations has been on increasing exports. This has been good for packers and exporters.
But we can export every last cow out of Western Canada and not one more penny will find its way back to the pockets of farmers and ranchers. Cows are heading for the auction markets by the thousands every week, and auction markets are cautioning farmers and ranchers to call first.
In some cases, they are even sending cows home to avoid depressing the market further.
In central Alberta, we are in a severe drought situation, with little or no runoff, only three to five millimetres of rain for April, May and into June, no grass and no hay crop. Governments point us toward AgriStability and Agri-Recovery, but these programs won’t even pay the bills.
Federal and provincial governments need to follow the lead of the northern U.S. senators and introduce a livestock marketing fairness act. If we have an integrated North American market, then we need the same marketing advantages as our southern neighbours.
We realize that governments cannot fix the weather, but they can help to fix the marketplace.
– Dale Fankhanel,
Ferintosh, Alta.
Poor choice
There are socialists and there are opportunists. In my opinion, Dwain Lingenfelter is a real opportunist. In my opinion, the election of him as leader for the New Democratic Party (in Saskatchewan) has set the NDP back further than any other step since they became a political party.
At one point he was deputy premier. He was offered a top position by a large oil company, which he accepted and this showed that he had no loyalty to the people of this province.
At the NDP leadership convention a motion was passed with a strong majority opposing nuclear development in Saskatchewan.
Dwain Lingenfelter made the statement that this vote was not that important as it was only a small group of people. He has made it clear that he supports nuclear development.
Wherever one goes there is a great deal of disgust among NDP people and a huge number will not support the NDP with him as leader.
(Regarding) the scandal of memberships in northern Saskatchewan, in my opinion Lorne Calvert should have had him banned from the leadership race.
Say what he likes, it will not convince voters that he was not aware of these tactics. In my opinion, he should have been told to go back to his ivory tower in Alberta, where he fit in very well.
– Bill Howse,
Porcupine Plain, Sask.
Deficit danger
The $50 million deficit is the latest rage. To understand, you must go back to when it was $40 million and the Liberals paid it off by taking the massive funds in the Unemployment Insurance fund, which was money paid in by employees and employers and was in no way government money, and putting it into general revenue.
Then they gutted Medicare, payments to the provinces, social housing and the arts.
That is how it was paid off, which destroyed all the gains ordinary people have made over the last 50 years.
At the same time, they gave tax breaks to major corporations under the theory that the money would be used to upgrade production and for research into new products. Instead the funds went directly into the pockets of senior executives…
Now here we are again. The Conservatives also gave tax breaks to major corporations on the same theory.
Now there are so many workers unemployed who have been supplying all the taxes and there just is not enough tax money to carry on and do the bailouts too.
The NDP are in a wonderful position to point this out to the voters but they spend their time nitpicking about employment insurance instead of trying to educate the public about the cause of the problem and how to fix it.
Bailouts are not the answer. Money must be spent on infrastructure to employ workers. Then the money will be in the treasury for all the funding necessary.
– Jean H. Sloan,
Lloydminster, Sask.
Old days
Regarding global warming, I do not believe in it. In the 1950s, I would go to work every winter in Winnipeg, Toronto and California.
I came back every spring. (On the) first of April I would get on my tractor, no cab, no jacket and start farming. By the 20th of April wild oats would be six inches tall. Now they do not grow until June.
You need to use a parka until June if you have no cab.
I can remember seeding on March 26 on fallow with a John Deere wheel drill and John Deere tractor. I was the first man in Manitoba in the field….
If you think that’s early, my father was seeding on March 12 in the 1930s with five horses and a John Deere 24 run drill, same as I used.
The springs have moved back two months since the Fifties. It does not warm up until June. The falls are a little later.
I would like to hear from other farmers their story.
– Jack Pawich,
Cartwright, Man.
Safe seat
So, Harry Van Mulligen is vacating his seat to allow Dwain Lingenfelter to run in a “safe” constituency. The people of Regina Douglas Park elected Van Mulligen as their MLA and they deserve better treatment than to be abandoned by him now.
As for the new leader of the NDP, commenting on the loss of NDP support in rural Saskatchewan and his plans for renewal, the May issue of The Commonwealth quotes Lingenfelter: “I start with the view that rural Saskatchewan didn’t leave the NDP. The NDP left rural Saskatchewan. …”
The May 28 Western Producer says of Lingenfelter: “He is still involved in three Saskatchewan farms – a grain operation near Regina that he rents out, an organic farm at Frontier operated by a local family and the family grain and beef farm near Shaunavon where he grew up and that he still operates.
“As well, he and his wife have a small farm where they grow beans and corn.”
Even with these strong agriculture ties, and promises of rebuilding the NDP in rural Saskatchewan, it appears Lingenfelter is too scared to run in his own rural constituency.
– Joyce Neufeld,
Waldeck Sask.
CWB freedom
Re: “My CWB” by Keith Ryan, Open Forum, June 18.
I believe you are very wrong about a few points. The Canadian Wheat Board does not return the most to farmers as was proven during the malt barley prices during the 2007-08 crop year. The CWB cost me and many other producers at least $1per bushel.
As for Ms. Dutton being locked up, that is true (“Held captive,” June 4.) (She is) handcuffed by a group of farmers that are pushing their beliefs on the rest of us, the friends of the wheat board.
If they think the CWB returns more to them, then that is fine. They can sell to them. But if I want to sell elsewhere, then let me.
After all, are we not living in a free country that many people have fought and died for to defend that freedom?…
– Iver Johnson,
Dundurn, Sask.
Tory projects
In the last few weeks, I’ve met several young men and women who are working on one or more of the many projects that the Conservative bailout package has generated.
One fellow I met was digging wells, another was working on a grid road project. One lady had obtained a job in a water plant where their town of 750 souls had obtained a grant to renovate their water treatment facility.
I’m amazed at how the eastern-based media always seem to find fault in the government. The CBC, which receives over $1.5 billion of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars every year, is always quick to point out government errors such as an MP who makes an insignificant wisecrack or remark without realizing that the recorder or camera was turned on.
Days later, he or she may find themselves embarrassed on CBC’s The National.
Yet when roads, bridges and water treatment facilities are being built with government programs that were generated by the same MPs, we rarely hear about it.
I’m not sure how much money the federal Conservatives and/or the Saskatchewan Party have generated towards infrastructure programs that have kept our young people working.
However, I would surely appreciate a half-hour documentary on that topic, especially given the fact that CBC and the infrastructure programs are fueled by the same tax dollars.
Last week, I got a notice in the mail from Revenue Canada that I must send them an extra $519 on my 2008 federal tax assessment. I’m glad, for a change, to see that a portion that of will stay in Western Canada.
– John Hamon,
Gravelbourg, Sask.
Nix the lock up
Keith Ryan’s letter (“My CWB,” Open Forum, June 18) is typical of CWB thinking. If you don’t agree with us, you should be locked up.
That may be your CWB, Keith, and indeed it is the CWB that has been jammed down our throats.
My CWB would be truly democratic. My CWB wouldn’t force people against their will to join just to sell their product and earn their living their way.
The barley vote was a farce. I voted for option 2 on the ballot because I felt that I didn’t have the right to tell others that they couldn’t sell through the board.
I didn’t realize that a judge would think I voted to relinquish any hope of marketing freedom.
Those of you who would force the rest of us to market through the board or not grow crops of our choice are holding us captive.
I don’t care what your paid-for economists have to say. Sometimes we just want freedom to choose our own path.
No democratic organization forces membership. Your illogical labelling of the CWB as a monopoly seller is ridiculous. It is a monopoly buyer only.
Are the buyers we sell to forced to buy from the CWB? No, of course not. If they were, it would be a true monopoly, with real selling power.
Maybe it’s your logic that should be locked up, but unlike you, I believe you have the right to your opinion and marketing choices.
Unfortunately, your crowd is too self-centred to have the same respect for others. Maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to grow non-CWB crops.
– Doug Kutcher,
Findlater, Sask.
Viterra & ABB
My name is Dion LeBrun and I am a South Australian grain grower.
I am interested in getting in touch with Canadian grain growers to find out their thoughts and feelings on Viterra. The proposed amalgamation of ABB Grain with Viterra is creating a large amount of press in South Australia, a lot of it negative.
I can read the corporate spin on company websites and the promises made in mail they send me, but what do regular Canadian growers think of Viterra? Are they grower focused, are they good and honest to deal with and how are they and this proposed deal seen by Canadian farmers?
(Contact The Western Producer for an e-mail address to reply.)
– Dion LeBrun,
Tumby Bay,
South Australia
