Bad example
To the Editor:
We’d like to bring to your attention the July 6 issue of The Western Producer.
On page 22 you have a picture of an RCMP officer conducting a safety inspection on a teenage boater – none of them are wearing life jackets, including the RCMP officer. This doesn’t set a very good example for boaters.
– Larry and Rita Ausmus, Leader, Sask.
Government grants
To the Editor:
I read with interest an article which ran in the July 13 edition of The Western Producer entitled “Machinery manufacturers say loans benefit province.” I feel compelled to add some balance to the article.
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Downturn in grain farm economics threatens to be long term
We might look back at this fall as the turning point in grain farm economics — the point where making money became really difficult.
Having been the Reform Party’s Western Economic Diversification critic for a year and currently one of the party’s agriculture critics, I am all too familiar with government grants and loans and how they affect the marketplace. For the most part, the infusion of government money into the private marketplace creates market distortion because certain businesses are subsidized at the expense of others.
As Pat Beaujot mentioned in the article, “When we see companies who only have an add-on part to design and manufacture get three times the support we got, or other companies that have a similar product in a rural area get four times the support level we did, it does make the playing field a little uneven.”
To take that argument one step further, there would be no complaints of governments favoring a certain business or industry over another if government loans and grants were completely eliminated.
Not to mention the fact that subsidizing firms on the basis of their location constitutes an internal trade barrier.
I am not oblivious to the current economic situation many businesses, including farm machinery companies, are forced to endure.
However, continued government mismanagement of public funds is the root of Canada’s unhealthy economic situation. The government’s role should be to create a climate for businesses to do business – not to get directly involved in private business.
As mentioned in the June 1 article featuring farm machinery manufacturer Bourgault Industries, Gerry Bourgault said, “If you receive government grants, the pride is gone … If you don’t run your business properly, government grants aren’t going to make up for that.”
In closing, I’d like to add that the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the company that owns your publication, received over $600,000 in taxpayers’ money to fund a variety of projects – including $66,500 from the current Liberal administration so the Wheat Pool could determine the worthiness of building a pasta-making facility. This is unnecessary, considering the Saskat-chewan Wheat Pool enjoyed net sales of $1.6 billion and a net income of $28.5 million in 1993.
I released a comprehensive study on Western Economic Diversification last January which I am forwarding for your perusal. You may find some merit in examining this issue further.
– Cliff Breitkreuz,
MP Yellowhead,
Ottawa, Ont.
Gun law
To the Editor:
I totally disagree with Allan Rock’s gun control legislation that it will prevent crimes being committed with guns.
More crimes are committed with knives and other means. This legislation is just another means for the government to extract millions of dollars from innocent law-abiding citizens because they own a firearm for sporting activities or game hunting.
This legislation has been brought in because some mentally deranged crook committed a colossal crime in Montreal by slaughtering a company of young women. And now they are blaming every gun owner in Canada for that crime by extraction of thousands of dollars from every gun owner in Canada.
I am also opposed to our government spending millions of dollars to support the Winnipeg Jets hockey team.
That is not what our tax money was intended for, and I don’t think Gary Filmon has any authority to squander our tax money on a money-losing hockey team, especially when they are paid millions of dollars in salaries just to play hockey and then expect the taxpayers to bail them out of deficit loss.
– Harry Cottingham,
Birtle, Man.
Slow learners?
To the Editor:
I was astounded that you printed an article advocating the addition of broiler litter to cattle feed. (July 13, page 55)
Did we learn nothing from the “mad cow” disease?
If broiler litter must be used, spread it on the fields and grow feed for cattle.
– Alma Gabruch,
Battleford, Sask.
