There was Accountability and Transparency by the Canadian Wheat Board for decades . Most Canadians, being urbanites, have no knowledge of what has occurred to farmers interests and the lack of transparency of the Ritz-run CWB since 2012.. Stewart Wells letter rectifies this info gap. nfu.ca/issues This letter is sent on behalf of Stewart Wells. To the editor, W.C. Fields’ line “Never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump” has never been better executed than by the Conservative government and their farmer-disenfranchisment policies. Their first move upon election in 2006 was to tear up the farmer-railcar agreement. This agreement would have given farmers a place at the grain transportation table, and while it wouldn’t have solved all the marketing problems from last year it would have at least given farmers a look behind the curtain. This move was followed by taking away the community pasture network that farmers have relied on for decades, destroying the PFRA and the tree nursery, vaporizing the support that farmers had through the margin based Agristability program, and weakening the Canadian Grain Commission. In parallel was the defunding and destruction of the grain varietal development and research capacityand this at a time when the world’s population has never been higher and the climate has increasing variability. Decimation of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was nextfarmers were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote on the matter according to the existing law, taxpayers were billed an unnecessary $349 million in 2011, and the $16 Billion world leading exporter was reduced from a business to a political maneuver with a few hundred million in assets. Predictably the destruction of orderly marketing through the real CWB cost farmers $4 Billion in lost income for the 2013 crop (money that ended up in grain company pockets, lost sales and demurrage charges), and the government now refuses to publish any financial reports for the Ritz-run CWB since 2012. With financial cover-ups and fast-tracking the give-away of farmer-paid CWB assets, it looks like the government is trying to bury a dead skunk as fast as they can. An Ag. Minister from Ontario or BC could not have accomplished this much destruction. No, the Minister had to be a short-term thinker from the prairies where Conservative votes could be taken for granted. Somewhere W.C Fields is feeling warm and fuzzy all over again. Yours truly, Stewart Wells Farmer Box 545, Swift Current 306-773-6852 «¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 05:50:37 +0000
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