Best De Pape yet!!

[Fransisco]

Here's another question for you boardies who want to pretend that Canpotex and the CWB are the same thing. What kind of royalties does the board pay to the Saskatchewan government?

Because when Brad Wall talked about Canpotex he talked a lot about those royalties. He also said this,

"We believe there is a significant risk to net loss to revenue for the Governments of Saskatchewan and Canada, revenue that in our province that would require deficits, or tax increases, or program cuts, or some combination of those things."

That doesn't sound like someone who's worried about whats best for potash producers. That sounds just like every other tax and spend politician who thinks they know better what to do with your money than you do.

And if the argument is all about tax revenue for governments the gazillions of dollars in lost revenue that the board has cost farmers over the last 70 years translates into lost tax dollars from farmers as well.

[jdepape]

stubble:
I went to the website www.cwbafacts.ca and was unimpressed. Same old rhetoric, same old misrepresentations, same old skewed conclusions based on inaccurate understanding of the market place.

I have sent an email to them to invite them to discuss their facts (I'm not concerned about their conclusions - but they should at the least get their facts right.) We'll see if they respond.

Example of factual inaccuracies:
"“basis” includes transportation and the other costs of moving a commodity from production to the international price location."

Sorry, but that's wrong.

Here's another:
"One of the largest malting plants in the world is located at Alix, Alberta."

At 39,000 tonnes (storage capacity), Rahr actually comes in fourth in Canada - after Canada Malt in Calgary (89,330), Prairie Malt in Biggar (107,380), Canada Malt in Thunder Bay (80,900). In the US there are many plants bigger than Rahr in Alix. Even more around the world.

There are many, many more examples like this. It's too bad that someone went to so much effort only to get so much wrong.

[stubblejumper]

depape you are just like the Farmers or Just Me who pay for your blog. You are allways right and everyone else is wrong.

[Fransisco]

If its so obvious to you that he's wrong stubble can you please point out where and how?

[jdepape]

Calling Farmers for Justice "Farmers for Just Me"...

Let's see if I have this right:

Open-market guys want an open market where EVERYONE will benefit, including single desk supporters.

Single desk guys want to keep the single desk at any cost because it suits them, even though others are saying it doesn't work for me and I want a choice.

So, logically, which group should be called "Farmers for Just Me" (or Farmers for Just Us")?

[jdepape]

By the way stubble - blogs are free to set up.

And since you and others seem to want to know:

I'm not charging for it.
Nor is anyone paying me for it.

[jdepape]

From www.cwbafacts.ca:

Auditor General of Canada Audits CWB
“Further, in our opinion, the financial accounting and reporting systems of the Corporation were managed economically and efficiently.”


Yup - that's right, accounting and reporting were efficient.

The Auditor General did not look at anything related to the commercial activity (marketing) by the CWB.

[jdepape]

From http://www.cwbafacts.ca/canola_magic.html

Quote 1: "The price farmers receive inland is still the export price minus the cost of the freight to port."

Quote 2: "The farmer does not know if he paid the freight to Vancouver."

If quote 1 is true, how can quote 2 be true?

[jdepape]

Like the CWB, CWBA likes to comapre the CWB to companies like Cargill.

See how small the CWB is when compared to Cargill? In 2002-03 the CWB had total revenues of $3.3 billion - Cargill was close to $60 billion.

The CWB sells wheat, durum and barley.

Cargill in involved in:
energy trading, risk and supply chain management (including power, natural gas, coal, emissions/carbon, petroleum)
Biofuels
Animal nutrition and feed (including branded feed products and feed ingredients)
Commodity trading and processing (including grains and oilseeds, cotton, sugar, ocean transport, energy and steel/ferrous
Industrial and bioindustrial products (active in markets: paper, corrugated board, adhesives, oilfield drilling muds, paints, inks and coatings,home care cleaning, hydraulic applications and functional fluids, winter road maintenance (salt), polyurethane foam, ferrous product lines, ocean freight solutions)
Farmer services (marketing, crop protection and inputs, agronomy, specialty growing programs)
Financial and risk management (including risk management solutions, investment services)
Food and beverage ingredients (too much to list)
Foodservice products
Personal care products
Pharmaceutical products
Salt
Branded food products


Yeah that's a relevant comparison.

[jdepape]

For what its worth, I sent an email to www.cwbafacts.ca.

They have not yet responded.

Funny - I don't even know who they are. For all I know it may not even be someone connected to farming - it could be a grain company or a government bureaucrat.

Huh. Go figure.