Bill 43

[BFW]

Farmers Son I cannot believe some of the statements you are making here. In fact if your views are indicative of the average board member, delegate, or cow calf producer then the ABP is indeed in serious doodoo. Your statement that "these forty feedlots forty feedlots will have control over your organization with what amounts to your money" is totaly assinine and clearly you are just trying to inflame a sensitive issue. The last time i looked i am certain that the checkoff was deducted off MY CHEQUE at the packing plant which makes that MY MONEY. It is still being collected for the betterment of the entire industry. I guess by your comments then that you think that it is right for these 40 mega feedlots to to pay checkoff in what amounts to a subsidy of the checkoff pool for the rest of the beef industry. If you are afraid of these feedlots taking the money and seizing control it seems a simple solution might be to stop collecting the checkoff altogher from slaughter cattle and attach the checkoff solely to the cow or the calf. I am sure that might be an agreeable compromise for everyone. Force the feeder organizations to fund themselves. Oh just a minute....., they already to on a VOLUNTARY basis.

[farmers_son]

If we had a plebiscite vote these issues could be discussed and everyone could make their views known. Unfortunately the Government is not allowing producers to decide this issue for themselves through a democratic vote and instead are mandating a solution just like they mandated age verification, premise ID and coming up next mandatoryvaccination records, movements, weaning and so on.

The feedlot operators I know are very smart people and run good operations. They understand the influence and power ABP had and some of them (not all by any means) either want that power for themselves or else they will not pay the check off which does amount to a lot of money for those 40 biggest feedlots. Either way they win.

And if we had a plebiscite vote and if the feedlots could convince Alberta’s producers that we should have a refundable checkoff so the 40 biggest feedlots could then control the industry then that is democracy in action. The problem is we are not being allowed to decide this issue for ourselves. That is not democracy in action and whether you can call that dictatorial or undemocratic I call it just plain wrong.

The feedlots are margin operators. What ever money the big feedlots can deduct from what they pay for our feeders is indeed theirs. And whatever money those 40 feedlot operators can convince government to hand over to the feedlot sector is theirs too.

The feedlots cannot argue both sides of the fence. They cannot say that the billions of subsidy dollars they received trickled down to the cow calf operator yet the checkoff they pay does not trickle down instead is an expense they bear on their own. I tend to go with BFW on this one. Any money the feedlots receive is theirs and any money they save is theirs and now they want ABP to be theirs too. And the government is going to give it to them.

If we cannot have a plebiscite on this issue then the feedlots win either way and the cow calf producer is left wondering what happened to the only organization that had to the resources to stand up to ALMA and the Province.

Lets have a plebiscite vote and let producers decide for themselves. Why not? I ask Grassfarmer that question… why not have a plebiscite vote?

[grassfarmer]

I'm up for a plebiscite farmers_son, always was - unlike ABP who were dead against one until when? I see you are still avoiding that question. Was it last week?, last month? it's not in any of the ABP BOD minutes posted on the web.
At the same time I'd like to inquire who is funding the advert I heard on the radio this morning complaining about Bill 43 and urging producers to call their MLAs. Is it you Farmers_son? - you and some like minded friends? Or is it general ABP funds? I am a levy payer and I strongly object to MY checkoff money being spent to run a campaign against a decision that I agree with, especially as I campaigned in recent years to instigate a plebiscite only to be turned down at every opportunity by ABP.

[farmers_son]

Check out:

http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx?p=mla_csv

You can download a file with all the contact information for all Alberta MLAs. They can be called and/or faxed toll free using the RITE line 310-0000.

ABP also has a form letter you can download at:
www.albertabeef.org

This an issue producers should decide for themselves through a democratic plebiscite. Make you voices heard or you will not have a voice left.

[BFW]

Interesting the resources the ABP are dedicating to trying to preserve the status quo. I have heard spots on numerous radio stations and seen ads in various papers , the cost of which must be already running in the several hundred thousanf dollar range. Is this our democratically elected leadership acting on behalf of the beef industry or one just trying to preserve or ones just trying to save the ABP? Good use of our dollars..... Democracy ensures you get what you deserve. This is business..

[grassfarmer]

Every dictatorship has it's day - this performance just proves that the minister made a wise decision. The last ditch campaign to save your %@%5 and directors salaries is just the latest in a series of events that will turn producers even more against ABP.
When did ABP decide they backed a plebiscite?
Is it general ABP reserves funding the ad campaign or is it donations from concerned directors producers?
hum hum hum ... still waiting....

[farmers_son]

What could be more democratic than a plebiscite vote on an important issue?

Whether we are talking about mandatory age verification, mandatory premise ID, mandatory vaccination records, mandatory weaning dates or mandatory tracking of livestock movements it is the Stelmach government that is being dictatorial.

Bill 43 was introduced April 28. It got second reading yesterday May 6. Third reading could be as soon as next week. The government is trying to ram Bill 43 down our throats so his provinces livestock based commissions such as ABP cannot offer any opposition to ALMA and its elitist board who wish to control Alberta's cow calf producers, hog producers, lamb producers.

Producers cannot sit on their hands on this one. They need to contact their MLAs, the Premier, newspapers to make their views known that they should have the right to vote through a plebiscite. Time is running out folks. This needs to happen today. Producers need to decide who controls ABP... cow calf or feedlot.

Producers need to decide for themselves if they want a strong organization that can stand up to the Government and ALMA and say Government is not telling us what we have to do.

[per]

What would the ABP look like without the feedlot tax. Different that is for sure. It would still have funding and could use that funding to further the cause of it's new base. Cow calf operations. Do a good job and you will have all the money. Keep up not listening to the grass roots and your fears will come true. Some of us have an ongoing dialog with our MLA's and have discussed this several times. My MLA likes the idea of choice, so do I.

[grassfarmer]

"What could be more democratic than a plebiscite vote on an important issue?"
What indeed? that's why producers were calling for one for the last 3 years only to be denied at every turn by the dictatorial leadership of ABP.
When did the said ABP leadership suddenly decide we needed a plebiscite? seems no-one can provide an answer to this one...

[farmers_son]

I like choice too. That is why I want to vote through a plebiscite. Why won't the government let us vote on this and decide for ourselves? I think it is because the Governemnt knows how unpopular the mandatory aspects of ALMA are and that producers know full well ABP was the only organization that stood up for them on the mandatory issue.

Boils down to why won't the government let producers decide this for ourselves. Producers need to ask that question.

[BFW]

FArmere Son, I think you are the poster child for ABP. You really said a mouthful and tipped your hand when you said, "this is about who will control the ABP. cow-calf or feedlots." If this is the true feeling at ABP then clearly the minister and the government have made the right decsion here. It takes courage and leadership to make the hard, unpopular decisions sometimes. If this is all you guys have now, calling for a plebiscite and screaming about what an injustice has been done then you just continue to demonstrate how little value ABP actually brings to the industry. The really sad thing is how long this has been allowed to go on.

[per]

Choice was requested several years ago and denied by the very ABP that now wants a vote. That is why another route was chosen. The Minister is now offering us the choice that the ABP denied us. Too bad it had to come to this but I am sooo ready especially after the display of consternation and using our check-off dollars to lobby against at least several of it's constituents.