WIDER RESPONSIBILITY
Re: Sustainable agricultural policies will soon land in farmers’ laps (WP Apr. 11). So, huge multinational food companies are starting to realize that the consumer wants sustainably raised food.
Well, the responsibility for this cannot rest only on farmers’ shoulders, even if it does land in our laps.
It was mentioned that a supply of fresh water is necessary for healthy food production.
We are faced with an oil and gas industry, using high pressure horizontal hydraulic fracturing techniques, that contaminates millions of litres of fresh water for each of its wells and pushes it deep underground, never, we hope, to return to the surface. And there are hundreds of these wells.
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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?
We are asked to reduce the use of chemicals and fertilizers. We can certainly do that.
However, we have no control over the dangerous chemicals that are spewed over our landscape or leaked into our water by this industry.
Healthy and productive soil will be needed for sustainable agriculture to flourish, but each year, tens of thousands of acres of farmland are taken up by oil and gas installations. Studies have shown that this land can never be fully reclaimed.
So perhaps those CEOs of the food giants should look over their investment portfolios and start attending some oil and gas stockholders’ meetings. Maybe that is the appropriate direction for some of the push. Farmers can do only so much.
Howard and Nielle Hawkwood,
Cochrane, Alta.
SAVE OUR TREES
In April 2012, the Government of Canada announced the closing of the Shelterbelt Program in Indian Head, Sask.
I believe the Prairie Shelterbelt Program should remain open for the benefit of all.
In the past 100 years, farmers in Western Canada have planted 600 million trees. These trees were supplied to rural landowners through the tree nursery at Indian Head.
This program has greatly benefited rural landowners, including our family farm. Since the early 1970s, our family has planted around 25,000 trees. The trees have provided our farm with shelter and protection from the wind, stopped snow before it gets to the farmyard, provided habitat for many birds and animals and enhanced the beauty of our farm site.
The government needs to realize the importance of the shelter belt program to all Canadians, not only for farmers.
Research has shown that shelter belt rows around yards reduce the amount of energy needed to heat homes and buildings by up to 25 percent and that one tree can clean the air for four people.
Today, with growing interest in the environment, it is vital that we continue sound environmental practices.
For these reasons, I feel that the government should seriously reconsider the closing of the shelter belt program in Indian Head.
I believe it is important that they remain open, even if on a smaller scale, to provide trees to people for today and for future generations.
Carli Cooper,
Tugaske, Sask.
WE NEED ANSWERS
Lyle Stewart, Saskatchewan’s minister of agriculture, belittles agricultural and environmental groups’ Public Pastures Public Interest initiative to have the 1.6 million acres of community pastures “continue to serve the broader public interests of all Saskatchewan people.”
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan passed resolutions requesting the provincial government keep the pastures under crown ownership.
Wildlife and conservation groups are concerned about losing wildlife habitat. PPPI is concerned these 62 pastures “could end up in the hands of out-of-province corporations.”
The (premier Brad) Wall government ignores the wishes of reputable groups in Saskatchewan. The megamall project, involving Chinese and Asian investors, demonstrates a lack of foresight by provincial, municipal and city governance.
The public has no information as to who authorized the acquisition of one million sq. feet of land adjacent to Dundurn. Questions surround this deal with foreign owners.
If Joe Zhou is Brightenview’s CEO, why can’t he say who investors are? What is Brightenview? Is it funded by tax-haven or off-shore money?
Does Saskatchewan need 350 Chinese-Asian factory owned businesses selling strictly Chinese-Asian products on Saskatoon’s doorstep? Does Saskatchewan’s minister of labour welcome the prospect of non-union, low-paid workers as a way to please business friends?
Why should Saskatchewan’s low-tax regime and SINP’s (Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program) fast tracking wealthy entrepreneurs with $375,000 to invest take precedent over other immigrants?
Answers are required before approval.
Helen M. Baker,
Saskatoon, Sask.
OUT OF WHACK
Just finished getting your yearly income tax return sorted out? Consider these facts.
KPMG’s semi annual 2012 tax report ranked Canada lowest in corporate tax rates, taking only 15 percent of corporate profits in taxes, as compared to the United Kingdom with 26 percent and the United States at 41 percent.
Other countries, such as Germany and Australia, maintain solid economic growth with double our current corporate tax rate.
Corporate tax savings have not gone into new machinery and R&D as promised, but is stashed in corporate cash accounts.
The corporate cash stash now totals $584 billion, almost enough to pay off the national debt. Despite low tax rates, Canadian corporations are increasingly turning to tax havens to pay even less.
Five of Canada’s top eight destinations for direct foreign investment are tax havens.
In 2011, a quarter of Canada’s “investments” abroad were in tax havens, up from 10 percent in 1987.
Profits are up and wages are down as a percentage of GDP.
Thirty years ago, Canada’s top federal personal income tax rate was 43 percent. Now it is 29 percent, far below the U.S. rate of 39.6 percent.
Just who is our federal government working for? The corporate bandits are getting the gold; you and I are getting the shaft.
Mike Bray,
Indian Head, Sask.
Nurse practitioners needed
A hot political topic has long been lack of accessible, quality, affordable primary health care services, especially in rural and remote areas of Saskatchewan. Nurse practitioners provide high quality, accessible, affordable sustainable patient care in various settings.
The NP student is a registered nurse with at least two years experience prior to entry to the NP program. Because an NP student has the earning capacity of an RN, they don’t qualify for government loans.
The “new” Saskatchewan student loan forgiveness program an-nounced April 9 by (rural and remote health) minister (Randy) Weekes, on behalf of the minister of advanced education Don Morgan, is inaccessible to the vast majority of NP students because they don’t qualify for the loan. Education programs for NPs have high dropout rates, often due to financial burdens placed on the NP student.
Announcements such as that made on April 9 are misleading to the public as far as recruitment and retention, show lack of knowledge of realities for NP students and show lack of regard for NPs in providing health care services in Sask-atchewan.
The ministry of health and the ministry of advanced education need to work with NPs to find meaningful and useful solutions to these problems of recruitment, retention and providing primary health-care services in Saskatchewan.
Debbie Bathgate, RN (NP),
Saskatoon, Sask.
