I think we need a vote on China purchasing farm land!

[newguy]

Agriculture is only one part of the picture. The atmosphere in Saskatchewan has taken a turn of no future here to the up and coming next Alberta. Small towns can not only sell houses but people are building also. On our 4 mile road there was only 3 farms. Now there is 7 yards with people living in them. The 4 added were young families moving on farms I thought would be abandoned forever. We do not live close enough to any big center for people to commute and do not have any oil industry here either.

[ado089]

Did it ever occur to you that people are moving here not because the economy or prospects are better but because they are trying to escape the overwhelming cost of living in places like the Alberta you idolize so much? So now you have four new neighbors with an ass load of debt and no idea the cost and inconvenience of rural life such as keeping a well and septic tank running, clearing your own snow and having to travel through countless varieties of bad weather on rural roads to get anywhere. There are a group of acreages out side of Saskatoon I drive by to get to the farm 4/5 of them have turned over at least twice in the last three years.

Like agriculture is only one part of the economy real estate is only one asset class. Unfortunately it is the only "asset" most people have now. I know the type of young families that are building and buying. Some were lucky enough to own a house before 2006 and have rolled the equity, but most and even some of those are in debt so far they have a net worth equivalent to the change lost under my couch cushions. Debt on primary housing and toys is corrosive since they generally aren't cash flow producing, usually the opposite.

Figure it out true wealth is resilient, this thing we have going now will tumble like domino's. And since your so eager to sell off our country to the likes of the Chinese I'm sure once they start wending people to work all their newly acquired resource investment they will gladly work for a 1/5 of what your new neighbors will.

[wd9]

ado, i think that is an unfair
generalization that all four have large
debt and are ignorant of property
management.

I know of a couple of people who moved to
sask, sold land here in AB for a tidy sum
and moved to peaceful sask. They are
neither ignorant nor in debt.

[ado089]

Wd9, that was a generalization and don't
suggest everyone is in that situation
but it does beg to ask if all was so
rosy in Alberta what compelled them to
leave?

[cottonpicken]

You need to look at and understand what is
happening,chinas banks have lent out an
equivelent of 50% gdp every year for the past 3
years,guess what things would look like if the us
had inject 23 trillion,their npr's are running at
1%,when historical range is 18-19,once this
rectifies itself because of the global currency wars
about to begin, we may get a lull in foreign capital
aquisitions before the big inflate comes,i
hop,imo,nia,dyodd

[sumdumguy]

If our banks and Farm Credit are backing these
totally unrealistic purchases, shame on them.
WTF have they not seen what happened in US
with inflated speculative values. All investors
should just pull their deposits and take them to
Australia. Kiss these lunatics goodbye.

[Hopperbin]

For one there is no communists from china buying land. They are permanent residents any kids of theirs are Canadian citizens right off the bat, and after 5 years the parents have the opportunity to become canadian citizens in which case they will lose their Chinese citizenship as the China does not allow dual. So they may not do that for financial reasons. They will have cpp immediately and full old age pension after a 10 year stay. They don't have to stay to collect the old age as long as the gov't thinks they are here 6 months of the year. Even half of Lebanese are Canadians for our welfare system. They don't live here at all. I have a lot of mixed feeling on the Chinese culture some daring to come to our rural sask. got a give them some credit for that somewhat brave. Basically they are here cause they have money and our wellfare system is second to none. In my opinion the people are capitalists doing their best under the conditions they have and the fact the country was shut down to foriengers for a while and then openned up at the time it was things just went nuts economically. The people are capitalist, and money is like god. A deal is not a deal until the bill is paid. When I was there the bickering that went on is unreal. Ok company a wants a contract to build something that company b wants built. So company a wines and dines company b's upper staff for a few days. Depending on the fun level company b will award company a the contract most likely on the suck up that company a did but maybe not, company b may have a relative company c that is a relation so company b just got wined and dined and whatever goes with that sex maybe for nothing. Or for a down payment company a may build something and then company b will ask for a deal later. Its nuts. We have seen nothing yet, we cannot compete with this shit. This shit was happenning and rampant from what I seen. Other than that anyone with money in China has ansestry to the sex trade, opium trade, or gov't.

[Hopperbin]

Then the ones that come here are bent on the fact they think they are doing society a favour and a greater good? Don't believe it.

[Hopperbin]

They are here for their financial reason. Not for anyone els's greater good.

[KatiaDmi]

Hi all. I'm currently researching for a news story on this very topic (foreign entities purchasing Canadian ag land.)

Would love to hear your insight. Please send me an email at (no spaces) Edmitrieva1 @ Bloomberg . net