Money,Money,Money

[ValueChainFX]

I had a producer tell me that we all need to start a new grass roots group and call it "Frustrated Agriculture and Rural Technicians". The main goal of this group would be to be a watch dog group for the Governments and Associations and ensure that it was made very clear that ALL the $$$$ that people have been told goes into agriculture is clearly clarified as to this much for the retails, this much for the packers, this much for the feed lots and whatever trickles down to the primary producer so be it! The suggestion was that only money that went to the primary producer should be called "money going into agriculture" if anything else was called "Money Going Into Agriculture" when it wasn't ..... Well than our new group would just raise a big stink!!!!

Although this little dittom made me chuckle maybe it's not so bad an idea! After all we do seem to be the only business in the chain that is told what we will get and don't have a chance to set our own margins unless we go past the traditional role of the primary producers.

[cowman]

Still nothing here and not really expecting anything soon. Alberta seems to be especially slow when it comes to passing out the cash! I guess Ralph hates to part with the ill gotten gains or maybe times are tough or something?
There seems to be a growing attitude in this country that the damned farmers are getting all this money and they are still whining...maybe it's because we never got any of the said money? If the government claims they spent $500 million how much of that goes for administering the program? How much is it going to cost to "administer" CAIS? How much of that money is going to go to the accountants?

[dalek]

The previous cull cow program announced still hasn't been put into place in Ontario, the province hasn't decided whether to give the money to producers or try to convince the feds to give Ontario's share to Gencor to blow on the MGI plant so last I heard there isn't even an application available yet for an Ontario cull program. Knowing McGuinty it'll probably all go to Gencor, then farmers will have to pay for shackle space to sell them cull cows and those of us in the East or North won't get any benefit from it anyway because the trucking will be too high.

[kato]

Administration costs should be deducted from the amount of money advertised as going to farmers. That should cut it in half, at the very least.

Just think..civil servants working 7 1/2 hours a day, with two coffee breaks reducing that a bit. Monday to Friday. Four to six weeks holiday a year...how much can they really get done in a day? That means it takes more people to do the job.

Then there are the supervisors and the supervisor's supervisors and the middle management and the people in charge of making out the payroll and the extra people needed to answer the phone calls from farmers asking "Where's my money?" and the days off for training and the obligatory one sick day a month. We won't even get into upper management costs...that's all over the CBC right now.

With such stellar productivity, is it any wonder "farmers receive so much assistance from the government"? That should be worded to say "farmers and civil servants receive so much assistance from the government".

Don't get me wrong....I have no problem with government employees making a good living, I just have a problem with the cost of their wages being advertised as "Help for farmers"!

[boone]

kato: Perhaps we could start a new organization called 'Groupe Action Western ' and print all our applications on #12 roundhole sieve material.Then we would no upfront how much leakage to expect.

[boone]

Note to self: don't change intent of paragraph half way through sentence! Should be "know up front".

[ivbinconned]

Don't worry Boone:
Jimmy Derantie said "my wife has a speech impediment, she breaths between words"

We just thought you was speaking real fast!

[k-way]

dguignio: What did you do different than the rest of us to get CAIS money? We applied when the forms first came out (within 2 or 3 days) and we can't get anywhere. We are supposedly eligible, but have been refused the 50% producer asssitance because we weren't in NISA prior. Apparently, we lied through our teeth to FIDP so they can't trust the estimates they based on FIDP info. We need to do all the final payment paperwork before they will even talk to us again!!

[boone]

ivbinconned:you'vebinconned,we've allbinconned! Thanks for the understanding here.

[dguignio]

I don't know exactly what I did right.Perhaps because I only partially filled out the forms and sent them in like that, then in no time a gal from CAIS called up to find out more info told me on the phone I would get interm payment and a couple fo week later it arrived.p.s only have been in nisa 2yrs Alberta wouldn't allow income from cattle sales,live in Manitoba now.