The Western Producer takes a weekly look at some of the stories that made headlines in issues of the paper from 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.
75 years ago: July 18, 1940
The federal government was under considerable pressure to exempt farm machinery from the 10 percent war exchange tax. John Diefenbaker, a Conservative MP from Saskatchewan, said the tax would place an added $2 million burden on Canadian agriculture, which imported $20 million worth of farm implements during the previous year.
Farmers continued their campaign to convince Ottawa to take steps to finance grain stored on farms until it could be marketed. This time it was Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s turn, during a presentation by pool secretary George Robertson to the Sask-atchewan Rural Municipal Secretary-Treasurers’ Association.
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50 years ago: July 15, 1965
The three prairie pools sold their downtown Winnipeg office building to an unnamed buyer. The pools shared the building at Main Street and Lombard Avenue with Canadian Pool Agencies Ltd., Pool Insurance Co. and the Manitoba Cooperator newspaper. The companies were scheduled to move into the new Royal Bank building on Portage Avenue between Main and Fort streets in June 1966.
Construction of the Western Co-operative Fertilizers Ltd. plant that Alberta Wheat Pool, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Federated Co-operatives Ltd. were building in southwest Calgary was well underway, according to a page of photos published in the July 15 edition.
25 years ago: July 19, 1990
A public opinion poll found that only one in five Saskatchewan residents thought a new nitrogen fertilizer plant that the provincial government and Cargill were building near Belle Plaine was a good deal for the province. The poll was commissioned by other nitrogen fertilizer manufacturers, which would be competing with the Saskferco plant.
Government subsidies and the pro-spects of a good crop were improving the prairie farm income outlook for 1990, but as reporter Barry Wilson wrote, “improved is a relative term. Slightly better than wretched can still be bad.”
10 years ago: July 14, 2005
Maple Leaf Foods president Michael McCain announced plans to build a $110 million hog slaughter plant in Saskatoon that would be able to process 20,000 animals in a single shift and 40,000 animals in a double shift. The plant was never built.
A special report in the July 14 edition tackled what it called farming’s newest wild card: climate change. Reporter Adrian Ewins found that flexibility would be needed to cope with the uncertain effects of changing weather.
Climate change doubters Tim Ball and Ross McKitrick also got to express their opinions.
