Eat Crow!!!

[BreadWinner]

Sorry for pinning the Big CWB pin on you, I was to young to know much about the crow. All I remember is that the landlord just loved getting the cheque in the mail and not sharing with the renters. All the farmers didnt know what they gave up till it was gone, it wasnt like they had any say anyways.

[Braveheart]

Smallguy, there hasn't been a "crow" since the early 1980's. Jean-Luc Pepin and Pierre Trudeau rolled the benefit into the Western Grain Transportation Act. The benefit was a declining balance, kinda like paying out an annuity. It was continued to be paid to the railways at the urging of the three Prairie Pools (to protect their export positions in TB), and the lobbying of the lost in left wing NFU. Pierre Trudeau later admitted that had been a mistake and the benefit should have went to farmers. NO FARM GROUPS I KNOW OF WANTED TO DUMP THE BENEFIT. Those on the other side of the "crow debate" wanted it paid to farmers until the balance declined to nothing which it would have by now.

As far as the payout compensation paid to landlords, farm groups and the government made the erroneous decision that the crow benefit was capitallized into the value of western farmland and that values would drop when the benefit was yanked. The feds, the wheat growers, barley growers, etc. all agreed with the way the payout went and were ALL wrong. The value of western farmland went up almost overnight. The comp should have went to the operator of the land.

But Smallguy, don't go back there. The WGTA/Crow created more inefficiencies than we can recount. Just move on.

[agstar77]

The mistake made was the trade off. The railways would have traded the crow for open running rights with a single company formed to maintain the rail lines. Of course now , no one has the guts to stand up to them.

[Burbert]

DO NOT LUMP ALL COMEDIAN FARMERS TOGETHER. We did not agree with killing the crow, in any way shape or form. We knew that the result would be, higher cost for farms! So it was and piratizing grain transportation began. Live, with it boys/girls, this huge mistake cannot, will not ever be undone. Remember the words, "In perpituity as long as the rivers flow and the sun rises," something like that.

[gregpet]

Burbert, is that Canadian farmers, American farmers or are we back to discussing comedians again?

[smallguy]

Braveheart:

The crow rate was not finished till 1995. The liberals started discussing it in 80's. This is a quote on the crow rate.

"Although popular with farmers, these reduced rates were not cost-effective for the railway and provided central Canadian manufacturers and grain ports with an unfair advantage. The Crow Rate was suspended by the CPR during World War One and only reinstated in 1925. By the early 1980s, the government attempted to resolve the problems between the competing interests by altering the agreement. The Western Grain Transportation Act of 1983 allowed shipping rates to increase, but never more than 10% of the world price for grain. In addition, further cash payments were made by the government to the CPR.

With the 1993 election of the new Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, the government took steps to eliminate the subsidies altogether. This was implemented in 1995 through the Western Grain Transition Payment Program, which provided one-time payments to farmers to assist them in making the transition away from subsidized shipping.
[edit] "

I agree with Burbert, time to move on.

[Braveheart]

There are lot of misused phrases around the subsidy. Biggest one is crow rate. Crow rate was gone in 1983 and became the crow benefit under the WGTA.

[smallguy]

Forgot to mention, that Braveheart was right in a sense, all the government had done was make a name change in 1983, and a couple of act changes. Termination of all was done in 1995.