Reader Comments in The Globe and Mail (800 comments)
Masdar
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| Saskatchewan Wheatfield |
Prairie farmers vote to keep Canadian Wheat Board.
The fact that the Canadian Wheat Board has served Canadian farmers and ultimately consumers for generations seems to have been lost on Conservatives over the decades and now by the Reformatories under Harper. This of course in due to fact that the Conservative supporting agribusiness want full control of grain production in Canada in order to control pricing.
Currently farmers depend upon stable pricing for their products. A study conducted in the mid 1990s suggested that farmers gained on average a premium of $13.35 a tonne on wheat as a result of the board's market. Supporters of the marketing fear that an end to the board would put farmers in a situation like that in the early part of the 20th century where farmers effectively competed with each other to sell their grain, a situation that effectively put them at the mercy of big agribusiness and the railroad monopolies and reduced farm incomes. Should the Reformatories pass this legislation to scrap the Wheat Board look for a wholesale loss of family farm operations in favour of the giant agribusiness producing Monsanto grain clones.
The fact that the Canadian Wheat Board has served Canadian farmers and ultimately consumers for generations seems to have been lost on Conservatives over the decades and now by the Reformatories under Harper. This of course in due to fact that the Conservative supporting agribusiness want full control of grain production in Canada in order to control pricing.
Currently farmers depend upon stable pricing for their products. A study conducted in the mid 1990s suggested that farmers gained on average a premium of $13.35 a tonne on wheat as a result of the board's market. Supporters of the marketing fear that an end to the board would put farmers in a situation like that in the early part of the 20th century where farmers effectively competed with each other to sell their grain, a situation that effectively put them at the mercy of big agribusiness and the railroad monopolies and reduced farm incomes. Should the Reformatories pass this legislation to scrap the Wheat Board look for a wholesale loss of family farm operations in favour of the giant agribusiness producing Monsanto grain clones.
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| Port of Churchill Depends on Wheat Shipments |
Disbanding the Wheat Board makes little sense given the losses in jobs in this mainly single industry town. The future of the Port of Churchill is doomed. Grain shipments from the CWB make up more than 90 per cent of the port's business but the expected end of the single-desk is likely to cause a serious reduction in the number of grain shipments.
Legislation to disband the single-desk is poorly planned and will cost money to fix the problem of lost revenues. But as is common with the PC tactics, the federal government will just doll out money which includes $5 million a year for five years for incentives to encourage grain companies to use the port for their shipments. Sounds like a giveaway to me. As well, Transport Canada will provide up to $4.1 million over three years to help maintain the port. These are taxpayer funded monies which didn't need to be spent in this way.
It's not clear yet exactly how the cash will be used or what incentives will be introduced. Why are these decisions being made is such a random manner with no real plan, no real purpose except to follow a policy of unregulated economy.
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