Money,Money,Money

[smokey]

It is almost becoming sickening to listen to the provincial and federal goverments,daily,tell the public about the 100's of millions of dollars in BSE aid they have paid to producers. Giving the impression that producers have actually recieved $. The impression that the money has been paid and everything is ok.
So...just wondering...have you recieved any of the money yet?

As for me ...ZERO!

[k-way]

The mature cattle program is telling me in a couple of weeks but they are not sure phone#1-866-314-2054, they only have four people working on it. CAIS probably when the border opens, that is a real joke!!!

[k-way]

Spellar said a couple of days, he did not say which one (they do not work weekends).

[frustrated1]

Wouldn't hold my breath for the cash but I'm sick of hearing it on the radio as well. Have a friend visiting out east for a while and the TO radio stations are all aflame with how much money us beef producers are getting. No, I have not recieved one single cent. Have never collected a penny on FIDP either. I did get a few dollars from the water program for digging dugouts. Recieved the payment late Dec, 2003. It was for the 2001 program. Wouldn't have got it then either but I phoned up and it had been squirrled away in some file for whatever reason, there wasn't a problem. So they found it in the goodness of thier hearts to mail it out. If we got half the mileage from the money that the media milks out of the dollar figures it sure would be nice. Ever notice that they harp about the same money for 6 months to a year whilst we eagerly await it's arrival? When I listen to the radio I have to question if it's new monies they're harping about; to those not in the business it must seem like a steady stream of cash to the farm!

[magpie]

No money here either!

[topper]

I just picked up the mail and low and behold the manitoba cull cow cheque was in there. Only nine hundred bucks but it was nice to get a cheque in that mailbox instead of a bill. The letter that came with the cheque said that the federal share of that program won't be coming until they get the entire inventory for canada completed. So I don't expect to see that for a while.

[hgb]

Today, we just received a cheque for the Alberta BSE Recovery program. A nice surprice to see as these cattle were sold in Aug. I was sure we had gotten lost in the paper shuffle.

[ivbinconned]

In comunist Russia the comment was often heard..." if you need milk, go to the radio to get some cause it says there is plenty!"

[CattleAnnie]

Received a whopping $640.00 from the BC gov't for their share in the cull cow program. So far that's it and that's all... no news from either the WFIP or from the wonderful world of CAIS.
Sure hoping no c-sections this year, as God himself only knows where that money will come from.
Hope the rest of you will make out better than I did.

[dguignio]

Picked up the mail today and hit the jackpot got manitoba cull check and 50%producer support check from CAIS,took only 1 month for CAIS to process the application.

[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.