COWS

[jensend]

can't shift; if i type any faster i'll lose control.

[TOM4CWB]

Fransisco,

The capital invested in Milk Quota is a franchise. This is the biggest difference.

The CWB (as yet) has not capitalised quota delivery... The CWB Act depends upon "Trade and Commerce" not joint Agriculture jurisdiction with provinces... which makes a world of difference on property rights'& restrictions...

Provinces can bind local Ag production intra-provincial (within the province) and regulate virtually anything they get the urge to control.

Ontario Wheat Producers Marketing Board respected their members/growers... there was no quota to decapitalise... it was very easy on a relative scale to provide marketing choice... it met the objective of wheat growers' marketing needs/desires by a wide democratic margin as well!

Clearly the CWB could do the same as Ontario has done... and in Organics... The CWB has already done so to a large extent.

Further Conservative Party Policy supports a choice in grain marketing because it is strictly a federal matter... and doesn't require provincial approval to deregulate.

[Fransisco]

Tom you are using rationalizations as a substitute for reasoning.

The truth is there is no difference when it comes to the fundamental principle we are talking about here. If Chris Birch wants to sell his milk to whomever he wants he has the same right as you do to sell your grain to whomever you want. Milk is not and should not be different than wheat.

You are avoiding the subject and the contradiction inherent in your position.

The question of the capitalization of quota is one of what is the best way to deregulate the supply management system. Not one of whether or not it is right or wrong to have such a system in the first place.

The argument that supply management is a 'franchise' and that the price of entry into said franchise is the price of quota is an old an false one. It is not a franchise, it is a cartel.

McDonald's is a franchise, Tim Hortons is a franchise, Home Depot is a franchise. There is nothing stopping you, I or anyone else from opening up a burger joint, donut shop, or lumberhardware store across the street from these places. That is not the case with supply management commodities. They are a closed shop, no competition allowed.

If the question is what is the fairest way to rectify the problem of quota capitalization I would say the answer is to pay it out at today's value while at the same time moving to an open market system. Australia did something similar to this not that long ago.

But before one gets to that point you have to come to the conclusion of whether or not such a system is right or wrong in the first place. And it is most definitely wrong.