What a way to run a railroad. Agriweek Mar 2

[wmoebis]

Tom are you saying that the MP's especially Ritz and Raitt don't know there is a problem?

[farmaholic]

Get off the dam cross already.

Wanting a directors seat at the defunct CWB, then on a crusade to destroy it. Wildrose candidate. UPOV91 advocate. And eye to eye, nose to nose, toe to toe, treasury to treasury against the RRs.

A little ambition is good, too much is dangerous. You have become a threat to yourself and the Industry(Producers) you claim to be an advocate for.

Crucified Martyrs are only Saints in their Believer's/follower's eyes.....

Good luck, I sincerely hope you find the outcome satisfactory

[farmaholic]

****in fools were hell bent on fullfilling a stupid election promise without a set of checks and balances in place. HASTY HASTY HASTY..... and now its damage control. Reactive instead of proactive. What a bunch of incompetant morons. Take the dam blinders off a look at the whole panaramic view, not just what you want to see, peripheral blindness. Boy are we paying the price, but nothing more unfettered competitive Capitalism won't fix, right?

[LEP]

We have 825 mt of a mix of liquid and dry fert storage.

Looked into a 5,000 mt liquid condo facility once. Chickened out.

I could have paid for it twice if I had built when I was going to.

[sawfly]

thanks for a response tom . i thought
you would just avoid the issue.
you won , rightly or wrongly ,the board is gone, that is not the issue any more. get on with things.

the issue is at some point a govt. is going to have to address the mess that lays before us.

and nothing is happening,you as much as stated that the railways are telling the govt. to f off.

you have as yet to admit that the grain co.s are taking advantage of the situation. but you can certainly see it.

we farmers are not smart enough to act together. and even if we did we are up against some pretty powerful adversaries .

do not let the dogma of your politics
blind you to what is happening.
(well that's socialist)
no it is not. it is a recognition of the flaws and abuses of capitalism.

and even the Americans have tons of laws about monopolies, combines and antitrust.

take your blinders off.

there has to be a balance between the corporation and the peoples rights and right now there is none .

and how far are you willing to let it go.

[TOM4CWB]

Farmaholic,

I remember the CWB... at the head of the train... preventing arbitrage of our grain prices:

1) the CWB, 'Pro Bono' (at grain growers cost)... held in plenty of feed barley and wheat... to make sure domestic livestock producers would never run short of feed grains. Holding back supply... causing minimal need to bid for grain growers produce.

2) CWB prevented shipments south to USA, of both Durum and HRS. Buyback was almost always more than the benefit of seeking the market price south. If the benefit of Arbitrage was $50/t... the CWB buyback was $55. If the benefit was $230/t... he buy-back was $240/t. Grain did not go south... railway got the shipping... exactly like the winter program to east coast ports from western Canada. AND who paid? Western grain growers... padding RR pockets.
3) Please tell me... how fixing the pre2007 hopper car maintanance overpayment above true actual costs... therefore lowering our transport cost to port by $2.20/t from 2007-08 till now... was "hasty, Hasty, Hasty"??? And how keeping the hopper rail cars... to retain the lowest cost base possible... thereby raising the price paid on all local western Canadian domestic sales of grain... was "Hasty Hasty, Hasty"???

Grain Farmers paid with their own Blood, Sweat, and tears... for all those grain Hoppercars... plus excess charges 3x actual cost... $72M/yr for close to 2 decades... Truly; Goodale was going to give the cars to the RailCarCoalition... retain the higher cost base... lowering the domestic western Canadian grain prices further... all the while the rail co's had first legal right to those cars... and would have fought all the way to the supreme Court of Canada to retain the Railcars and 'embedded' overcharges to maintain them... AND VERY LIKELY would have ended up with the railcars FREE.

Admit it;... since 2006... trying to better make our grain freight rates reasonable... has been a priority.

We have a long way to go.... no doubt. Our job now... is for grain farmers to NOT remain/or become further divided like the great CEO Hunter is doing his best to encourage...

But truly work together to better service our end use customers... with dependable delivery from the farm gate to the ship in the port.

My only reason... for exposing my family and me to the great railing freight train of run away profits... that pads the skilled Hunters compensation packages...

Was to bring to grain growers attention... in the first person... I am he...who is feeling the pain right down to the Writ of Execution placed upon every farm title that I have...

THIS IS REAL. If we do not work together to resolve our problems... the Great Hunter will have succeeded... and our next generation of grain growers will be slaves to the Hunters who rail against us... just as our generation was enslaved by both the CWB and rail Hunters!

This is Not about me being on a cross... but I sure would appreciate some applications from you folks...to the CTA ... explaining just how disruptive cherry picking Hunter has prevented arbitrage of our grain prices... by failing to provide a reasonable level of service to our grain transportation grain
marketers.

If we work together... our many chains of interest and concern woven together... we can pull the great hunter right out of his powerful locomotive... easy chair!!!

Now... go and just do the right thing! Send a letter to your MP. Make a submission to the CTA... and tell them in no uncertain terms... you are sick and tired of a run away freight train... recking your opportunity for a fair return for your families blood sweat and tears!!!

[TOM4CWB]

Sawfly,

Our government truly does want a resolution to the service deficiencies in our grain transportation system... your denial of this fact will not change the urgency of it being addressed... nor the importance of properly informing the right and proper agencies of real problems you encounter. Each one of us... who individually make the effort to submit our issues... to the CTA... provide a counterbalance more weighty than that of any one of the hired 100 plus paid lobby railers on Parliament Hill today.

WE MUST submit real and well thought out complaints about how the lack of service... hampers and hurts each one of our farms!!!

Or the Great Hunter... and his 100 plus paid Hunters... WILL WIN.

Is that what you want???

[TOM4CWB]

OK BP;

"What if the govt did not own any cars?
What if there were no rate cap?

I'm a complete laymen but what if we had a constitution that doesn't rely on the Supreme Court for every tiny thing?
Right to work laws?
Anti Combines Acts? "

1) "a constitution that doesn't rely on the Supreme Court for every tiny thing" Sorry... Pierre E Trudeau messed up our chance to properly reform property rights and the common law in Canada. I see no way out of this rut... or coffin... whatever you wish to call it.
2) "Anti Combines Acts"... I could see a great danger in the Liberals and ND's in allowing the railways to go together... Goodale gave the CNR to the US share holders... at 10 cents on the dollar. Now the great Hunter has formed a JV between CN and CP... through his leadership... few understand what is going on in management in our RR head offices. Collusion and reform of management structures... at the highest levels... to assure the most profitable levels possible... at the least cost and services.
3) Right to work... We have the right to work all right... our farms and generations of our families... working to build future profits of RR kingdoms Hunter is building.

Why take the rate cap off... have the great hunter take 30 percent more... at lower service levels? Please explain how that will help anyone but Hunters bankers???

Sell the rail cars to the railway... when they are perfectly good... are worth very little except to us as grain farmers... like $5/t... x 20mt... x2 for domestic arbitrage... plus higher cost for value added shippers of our down stream produce in any event.

BP... review your wishes... Hunter is watching.... you made his day!!!

[farmaholic]

Somewhere on Agriville I am on record as identifying the hoppercar maintenance overcharges....

Also admit there was shipping problems at times with the old marketing regime in place but in my mind it was better than in the new marketing environment.

The governments have powers to take away the
CWB monopoly yet seem unwilling to do anything to improve true competition amonst a duopoly RR transportation scheme and a collusionary grain handling/buying.

You got your open market, function in it.
There was a bit of a producer advocate that got
axed without any regard for the consequences for doing so. The old regime made mistakes but there was some semblance of order to things.

Wmoebis mentioned the reduced "role" of the CGC.

Arbitrage? Load the trucks Tom. You're free to take it in any direction as far as you want! Load empty seacans. Put it in 1 lb bags and sell it on the big city street corner.

In my opinion things went to absolute shit for us when the Cons got their majority. Instead of building on what already existed they choose to tear down and let the market dictate...how well has it worked?

MONOPOLIES NEED REGULATING. **** freetrade
and nafta. Do what is best for the country and its citizens not Corporate interests. Since when should Canada(and by that I mean its people) be a puppet of foreign governments and Corporations?

I am not saying the market shouldn't have been opened up but if I could I would hit the reset/restore button to July 31, 2012 and start over

[TOM4CWB]

Dear Hopper,

2012/13 was near perfect arbitrage with plenty of freight capacity in any direction needed. Prices were acceptable and margins reasonable.

Aug 2013 to Dec was just fine on prices and reasonable basis... then the great Hunter sells a slug of locomotive power and lays off a whack of folks who maintained the power. No rocket science needed... to predict the result... our cars and grain were stranded... nothing at all to do with CWB Aug 1 2012 freedom project.

Ritz left enough rope for the the CWB to hang itself... the the old CWB board of Directors made full and complete jumps off the deep end... with the rope securely and tightly tied... by each other... around each other's necks... and they took great pride taking turns pushing themselves off the deck of their own sinking ships.

Personal responsibility lays with each former
CWB farmer director... that was involved in buying the CWB ships and failing to open up freight arbitrage and providing some opportunity for marketing arbitrage in CWB grains.

We have a CTA service review of the rail system right now...

Make your views known to the correct agency of what it is... you need the CTA/gov to do... to provide acceptable reform to the transport system...

I am here merely to bring the message... please take the full and proper opportunity to express your and your farms needs...

I will personally get through this debacle...as will my farm/family... as will my community. As will you I expect.

Our family has plenty of trucks... we have plenty of opportunity to use those trucks... load railcars... ship grain wherever and to whomever needs our produce...

Do the right thing... please... and I will do the same!

If you need any help.... let us know!

Calling each other dishonest names... simply exemplifies the weakness of our position
we all need to be a part of the solution...
All the best!
Please write a submission to the CTA... and have a great day!!!

[agchat]

Come on guys leave Tom alone. He knows what is best for us. I am not a gifted writer like him, and pars, so my two cent jib jabs on here mean nothing. Lets face it, when some people are right, they are right. Tom is right in his mind because to him we are ALL ****ING STUPID. Yup instead of axing the cwb he should of fought for changes in the cwb, but no axe it that is the way to go. That way it fits into my life plan better, screw the thoughts of any one else, cause they are ALL ****ING STUPID. Now as he reads this he thinks, " Oh shut up agchat, **** YOU ARE STUPID.

[Oliver88]

It would be nice to be setup for NH3 storage.
Not sure what red tape a guy would have to deal with?