SUPPLY MANAGEMENT
Supply management: is it a good time to do an article on the pros and cons of the subject?
Maybe we would not have the current high prices of beef or buffalo, or the past low prices when ranches quit or went broke. Will the latter occur again?
Should the government cancel the present system with the taxpayers paying farmers for the loss of quota? Give a cancellation date for the present system or allow all producers of commodities access to apply supply management, should they wish.
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Canada lives in a democracy.
Don Binns,
County of Grande Prairie 1, Alta.
Public plant breeding
Kevin Hursh’s (WP, May 14) post regarding the election of Rachel Notley’s NDP government is an undisguised attempt at fear mongering himself.
Even before the NDP government is sworn in, Hursh is predicting gloom and doom for Albertans. Using such phrases as “a left of centre government,” “left-wing voices” or “environmental groups,” Hursh ignores how years of “right wing” governments have badly neglected the needs of the average Albertan.
Hursh states that farmers have never had the right to sell seeds of proprietary varieties — true, but before “right wing” governments introduced plant breeders rights, all farmers had the right to use and reuse seed that was developed by public breeders at universities, and research stations without being held captive by private breeders and “right wing” governments.
Hursh further accuses the National Farmers Union of “fear mongering,” while it is he himself that is “fear mongering.” The farmers privilege provision in Bill C-18 does not protect farmers from being accused of infringing on PBR-holders rights.
Canada has been well served by a very successful program of publicly funded, public interest plant breeding to the variety level.
The economy of the whole country benefits from public investment to develop new varieties. Better varieties can confer a number of benefits: more reliable and higher quality crops leading to premium export markets; higher farmer incomes; a healthy rural economy; local investment; and additional public revenue via income taxes paid by farmers.
In addition, a public interest breeding program provides the qualities our international customers want, and thus has positive effects on Canada’s international balance of payments.
C-18 will give private breeders the power to charge farmers whatever royalties they decree, but farmers would have no say in how this money would be used, and long standing public varieties would, no doubt, fall by the wayside.
Joyce Neufeld,
Waldeck, Sask.
PYRAMID PARTNERSHIP
Nothing is ever free. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a pyramid scheme with only 12 participants. The claim that a TPP agreement will increase the trading of food/grain products is deceiving. The total populations of TPP countries will not suddenly multiply, requiring increases of total food products required. Every gain is someone else’s loss. It results in resentment and distrust of each other.
Every trade agreement Canada participates in reduces Canadian control of our own economy. Every federal government compensation to Canadians, resulting from TPP agreement losses, will be debt that all Canadian taxpayers will pay for.
If Canada pulls out of the TPP agreement, the trade terms of previous agreements must still be honoured by both Canada and the U.S. Canadian supply management of poultry and dairy products will still apply. Canada can still sell unprocessed canola to Japan duty free. Grain and cattle trading terms from previous agreements will still apply.
The graphic (WP, May 21, p. 1) indicates a total farm receipt value of over $9.6 billion per year for Canadian farmers, by maintaining supply management of poultry and dairy products. Loss of these industries, to existing U.S. overproduction, will result in loss of employment and Canadian tax revenue. Do Canadians want to be reliant on the U.S. for these products?
The loss of Canadian feed industries, presently supporting supply managed products, will result in more grain/feed exports at lower values to farmers. The farm value of our canola could also decrease because of lost feed value to the approximately 50 percent feed content of locally processed canola.
Did the Canola Council of Canada (TPP has great potential for some industries, WP, May 21) take this factor into account when they claimed a possible gain of $780 million per year in canola value?
Our present railway systems aren’t even able to satisfactorily handle our present imports and exports. The TPP claim of increasing imports and exports would result in increased highway traffic, resulting in higher highway maintenance costs, which will again be an added cost to Canadian taxpayers. Increased transportation will also result in further reductions to our non-renewable fuel resources and increase pollution.
Canadians must speak out against further loss of control to our economy and loss of supply management. It is said, “If you find yourself becoming deeper and deeper in a hole, which you may no longer be able to climb out of, stop digging.”
Fred G. Willis,
Saltcoats, Sask.
