Where’s the equity? Grain infrastructure sold for scrap
Just about every day I drive from Lloydminster to my farm at Waseca, Sask. I have most of my land rented out, but I have a couple of small patches I am farming. There always seems to be something to fix.
The road I use is the one south of the upgrader. There is a new business started up south of the road. It is Inland Steel and they are cutting things up for scrap. I am looking south and I see something on the hill south of the scrap yard. Being a bit of a snoop and a self-appointed fresh air inspector, I drive over there.
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I couldn’t believe my eyes. Lying on their sides on the ground were 50, 60 , 70, I don’t know how many, hopper bottom grain cars. Too many to count. They were processing these cars and cutting them up for scrap.
These cars were not wrecked, there wasn’t a mark on them. I have loaded over 100 producer cars in my farming career and I know the bodies were in good shape. I don’t know about the running gear or brakes, but it is just like a vehicle — you have to do brake shoes and bearings after a while.
The wheels can get worn down, but I have been to Winnipeg and toured the railway repair yards. They have an automated welder that rebuilds rail car wheels. There was nothing possibly wrong with these cars that couldn’t have been easily fixed.
I was dumbfounded. I phoned the manager of Inland Steel. He was quite happy to have those cars. He said they wouldn’t pass safety and the people who owned them wanted them disposed of.
These cars are gone and never coming back, but the people who had them obviously didn’t pay enough money for them and just wanted to get rid of them because they are old.
History is going to look back on how the elevator collection system for the Prairies was torn down for no good reason. Now we are losing our grain cars too.
Every year that I farmed, the wheat board took our grain for a small down payment. We got some small final payment and in the meantime, the wheat board used “farmer money” to buy a high rise office in downtown Winnipeg, rail cars, lake freighters and Lord knows what else. Now everything is sold — where is my equity?
Victor Hult,
Lloydminster, Sask.
Bigger and bigger farms are not always better
Regarding your May 26 issue article about mid farms vanishing act.
Sections of our society keep pushing that bigger is better. No matter the topic, bigger is not always better. In total fact, it is never better.
We had a few quarters to a section or two of farm size. Then the farm had farmland, livestock, poultry and a sizeable garden. They were very self-sufficient. Numbers of bigger farms keep increasing.
During this time period the number of homeless people keeps getting bigger. At the same time the number of hungry people keeps getting bigger.
Being small and self-sufficient is the best. Bigger is never always better.
The remainder of society has watched as everything keeps getting bigger even the price of that.
Bigger is never better. Inflation is going to get bigger. That is not better. Constance is better.
Delwyn J.J. Jansen
Humboldt, Sask.
Gun control measures will not end crime
I often think it was a good thing Jesus Christ wasn’t born in Canada. They’d have never found here wise men in the east. Not on Parliament Hill anyway.
Well, there they go again, still trying to make our lives more difficult. Interesting that criminals are totally exempt from this new gun registry. To quote Peter Worthington, co-founder of Sun newspapers: “criminals break the laws and gun laws apply only to people who don’t.”
Anyone with a functioning brain knows that guns, knives, two by fours or golf clubs don’t cause crime any more than cars cause crashes. I believe as do many, that the Marxist-Liberal crowd may have a darker motive. Politicians pretty much disarmed Germany just before unleashing the military domestically prior to World War Two.
Let’s back off our tunnel vision for a bit. If the government cared about crime, criminals would actually be punished and put in rehab programs that work, but that doesn’t happen here.
Also, the many computer games of killing, killing, killing would be outlawed, the latest one being killing peaceful protesters. Millions of young people spend thousands of hours engrossed and steeped in these “games.” This is potentially dangerous and is being promoted. One needn’t be a genius to see what’s happening here.
I like the bumper sticker that says: “They’ll have to pry my gun from my cold dead fingers.” I hope we never need that attitude.
Ross J. Hingston,
Landis, Sask.
