Interesting report from the CBC

[Choice2U]

If the CWB were to buy assets, it better be based on choice (at least I am consistent). Any payout is the farmer's money and if a farmer chooses to let the CWB use his/her portion, that is their perogitive. My guess is that if a payout were to be made through the CWB, as usual, my choice would be non-existant.

On a side note, Larry, how does one calculate who gets the $6B payout (hypothetical amount)? Acreage based? Owner? Renter? tonnes? permit book holder? What about the farmer who has not grown board grains in years but has still felt the CWB's wrath through car allocation, PRO's that move a market, minimal value-add in the prairies, commodity price limitations on non-board crops due to added supply pressure because most have moved away from King Wheat over the past 20 years, etc.

[dave4441]

It is almost impossible, as growers, to vote to get rid of the CWB becuase it is better for our farms and then turn around and negotiate a payout to CDN farms over the loss of this institution. You are either in or out on this one.

This is like saying you want gasoline taken off the market becuase of greenhouse gas accumulation but you want compensation becuase now you have to walk everywhere you go. Yeesh. I will focus on creating opps in marketing and will not worry about the trade credit costs. How many times would people be more then happy accepting USA pricing on this site?? Those costs are built into that system.

[Choice2U]

A payout for the guarantee and a voluntary wheat board MUST go hand in hand. For those that want to be part of a voluntary CWB (that could handle all grains), a farmer can choose to have his payout go to fund this purchase of assets.

If there is a payout for the guarantee under the same CWB laws as today, I am dead set against the CWB purchasing assets with my money without my choice.

[wd9]

At the very least Canada should get something back in the form of WTO talks. Export subsidies decreased whatever. But, reality is Canada will just give it away like the crow and get nothing on the world stage.

But at least it probably won't happen for another 20 to 30 years so why worry. In the mean time i will blindly go sign my series A contract without a clue of who my customer is, what they want, and what price i get.

[gustgd]

I would take this from Larry's comments that if we do trade away away govt guarantees we should get something of value from trading partners.
What do we want?

May I be so bold as to suggest a 2% allowable limits for registered GMO material in exports to Europe
or, perhaps elimination of European and US export subsidies.
We can dream can't we

[gustgd]

I can't think of a situation where I would want to have to explain to the Canadian taxpayer why they owe me a cheque.
Lack of imagination I guess but if my federal govt would help to eliminate barriers to entry into foreign and domestic markets that's all I expect.
Keep your cheques for workable safety nets.

[wd9]

Haveapulse, still waiting for that answer.

[haveapulse]

When Canada via the CWB confiscated our wheat in a war measures act that extended well past the period when other industries were released of their obligations.

Calculations of the cost to western farmers of the WWII contributions were estimated some time ago, in real dollars to be 2 billion.

This 2 billion is a direct payout, its origin and justification, is our history as payout from a nation fopr the confiscation our assets to date.

It is fair to estimate that the post CWB time period of adjustment there will be fall out from a system that in the last 60 years has been built upon this institution.

Therefore I note, there are benefits and costs of all institutions. What the CWB does for our industry is to dispense our grain over the course of the year in a term called orderly marketing or systematic dispensation of our grain; a system of orderly logistics.

Orderly marketing or a pool system in a land locked country with limited port access is a concept of great importance, not to be undervalued.
I believe we all benefit from orderly logistics if not orderly marketing!

How do we maintain some sense of orderly logisics. without a pooled system for at least some of our commodities, as we cannot ship all of the grain out at the highest price and continue to farm all of our acres.

In all of the surveys it is noted a great degree of support for a dual market. How do we have a dual market without some assets?

As you know the AWB, unlike our CWB owns assets from inland to the port.
AWB offers a dramatically different approach to the marketing of pooled grain. AWB used its owned assets alongside private assets to move the pooled grain. In Australia the loss of the AWB monoply still left an pooled option and an Australian company whose assets were owned & operated by a group of shareholders many but not all being producers.

In Canada our CWB has used private assets to channel farmers grains. Therefore, in the post CWB time period the challenge for western producers will be to determine the dedicated companies capable of sustaining a global presence. Given our landlocked production zone I believe we need to carefully consider how the movement of grain functions in a post CWB time

4 or the 6 billion would be used to define a dual market option for farmers.

In addition we will need a government coordinated risk insurance program to release capital and enable grain trade for all companies operating in Canada as a replacement of the government funding of the CWB.

[haveapulse]

PS:
And I remember those who called for an end to the CROW rate without prior negotiation of the real value of the transition. The subsequent payout failed to even remotely compensate us for our loss or the cost of shipping grain in the future.

The transition still fresh in our minds, resulted in few benefits to the farmers who called for this change,
until finaly frustration in the industry forced government to have a rail revue after more than a decade of costly fall out.

So please we should be proactive and determine a process of buy out for the CWB, as a supporter or non supporter it it a fact that an institution that has shaped our industry and grain movement for all of our exporting history will have an adjustment period, for the industry. I believe the transition is necessary, and emminent for our industry, and that compensation and restructuring needs to be done to create a new order.

[Kodiak]

Oh come on.

1. It will take the industry literally hours to make the adjustments necessary if the CWB disappeared down a rabit hole by 6:00 PM today. By tomorrow morning they'll have cash bids for you and have the transportation booked.

2. Let's not try to suck and blow at the same time - it looks really foolish. If we believe the CWB costs us all because of poor marketing performnace, inefficient transportation, and assorted other incompetencies it's nonsense to ask for "compensation" if the market is opened up.

3. We should be asking for compensation if they DON'T remove the monopoly, not if they do. That's something I think many would support.