UNUSUAL WHEAT CHEQUE
This spring, farmers have been receiving cheques from the former Canadian Wheat Board. These unexpected and unusual cheques are labelled as “final payment adjustment”. This money comes from the final pool account of the now defunct Canadian Wheat Board. Farmers traditionally received their total final payment from the former wheat board a few months after the wheat pools closed every August. This particular payment arrived more than 1.5 years after the pools closed.
Shortly before these recent payments arrived, the courts had granted the Friends of the CWB a green light on their claim that funds from the CWB final pool year were misappropriated by the minister of agriculture. This means that the Friends will now have access to the CWB books to prove their claim. I wonder if it is a coincidence that farmers subsequently started receiving these late payments shortly after the court ruling.
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Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
If there is a connection between the recent court ruling against minister (Gerry) Ritz and the recent wheat payments, then I have already been reimbursed for supporting the ongoing class action launched by the Friends of the CWB.
The disrespect that minister Ritz and prime minister (Stephen) Harper have shown toward western farmers when they denied them a vote and confiscated their assets is shameful. The Friends of the CWB have my support to continue all legal means to right this terrible wrong.
Eric Sagan,
Melville, Sask.
MORE DISSONANCE?
I read a letter that stated the farmgate price of wheat is about 40 percent of the export price, that when the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) handled the sales, it was about 80 percent. The inference was that the new system is not as good for farmers as before.
Then I read a letter which said farmers are much better off now, a farmer could have sold all the production last fall and so be better off. I suggest you check this yourself. What was the export price last fall? The grain industry has the ability to be secretive about prices, but somebody discovered the export price for one day in February 2014 was over $11 per bushel. We know farmgate prices last fall were higher than in February, so pick a number.
You can calculate your average price using your normal contracting practice, some in the spring, more in July when you had a pretty good idea yields were higher than average and then topping up when harvest was over. I would be surprised if your average is much over 50 percent of the number you picked.
Does this make you wonder if the farmers who think they are better off now than when they had the old CWB suffer from cognitive dissonance? What is that? The ability to ignore or deny facts if they run counter to their cherished beliefs.
Lorne Jackson,
Riverhurst, Sask.
RURAL SURROUNDINGS
Compliments to Kevin Hursch on his column in the June 13 edition of The Western Producer. I’m sure he expressed the views of many of us who are rural dwellers.
Spring is, of course, a wonderful season, from the first snow melt through seeing blossoms on the trees and crops emerging. Animals and birds and lengthening days are an added bonus.
Long hours of work are well compensated when we see and appreciate our surroundings.
Mary Risseeuw,
Strathmore, Alta.
VENUE CHANGE NOT ANSWER
Re: The struggle to compete, by Robert Arnason (WP, June 12)
Don Flaten, a University of Manitoba soil science professor, said hog barns have an image problem and many Manitobans “don’t have as positive an attitude towards intensive livestock operations as they could and should have.”
He added, “There’s lots of areas of the province where manure nutrients could be applied in balance with the crop removal without any extraordinary investment or technology, such as anaerobic digestion … (and would) benefit agronomically from having access to more manure phosphorus”.
Is he again glossing over the real problems with extreme buildup of phosphorus (manure) in areas of concentrated hog production? He knows full well that when the government of Manitoba placed a top regulation limit of over 800 pounds of available phosphorus per acre, he and they were helping the hog industry by compensating for the lack of manure spread acres with a “licence to pollute.” Most crops use only 30 to 40 lb. of phosphate a year.
He was a main player in developing and recommending this regulation to the government. He knew then that industry was unwilling to incur the expense of transporting the manure from areas with too much to areas that could use it in a balanced way. They still don’t. They do want to build new barns as cheaply as possible in other areas of the province where the same regulation limits apply.
Flaten is posturing and once again supporting the hog industry by proposing that polluting industries that want to operate as cheaply as possible can become environmentally sustainable simply by changing location.
John Fefchak,
Virden, Man.
BANK LOANS
The latest act of sheer generosity is that some of the chartered banks are now offering No Fee accounts. Some of the recipients are so poorly off, they do not even have bank accounts. They operate in a strictly cash society. How generous, especially when banks have just announced unprecedented profits for their stockholders. They and their wicked step-children, the promoters and speculators, make very sure the majority of the wealth Canada produces is concentrated in as few corporate hands as possible.
The question then remains, why do municipalities, provincial governments and the federal government not borrow from the Bank of Canada at a very low interest rate? That is just what it was designed for, and would save millions in interest charges. Until we are able to elect a political party (not yet in existence) that vows to stop feeding the parasite class — nothing will change. For that is the only option we have under the present system.
Jean H. Sloan,
Lloydminster, Sask.
CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE
(Agriculture minister) Mr. (Gerry) Ritz, I expect better. From June 22 to 27, Winnipeg hosted the 6th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture. This event is the international stage of Conservation Agriculture and all eyes were on Canada as it played host to the world. One would think Ag Canada and its leader, our minister of agriculture, would want to show its support for Canadian agriculture to the international community at an event right here in Canada.
Apparently not. Conservation Agriculture does not matter a dime to our agriculture minister. $0, that’s how much this minister has provided in financial support for this event, except to send a handful of Ag Canada staff, but just one hand.
This snub by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is truly a national embarrassment and an insult to both Canadian agriculture and the international movement which protects the vital soil resource that feeds the world.
The Soil Conservation Council of Canada, along with the Conservation Technology Information Center from the U.S.A. co-hosted the event in Winnipeg. It was the first time the conference was held in North America. There was also provincial support from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Though minister Ritz himself may have had other commitments during these conference dates, could not even one of the 11 Conservative MPs from the host province of Manitoba have shown up and represented our national government?
Further, I am overwhelmingly amazed that the USDA has found the resources to sponsor this event held on Canadian soil, yet our own federal government believes this international congress is completely unworthy of any support whatsoever. Obviously our Canadian government does not view conservation agriculture and the security of our soil resources with the same vigour and urgency.
Tim Nerbas,
Waseca, Sask.
