What is government's responsibility?

[Hamloc]

As we all bitch about the grain marketing fiasco in
western canada we need to step back and
consider what a government should do. First and
foremost a government should work to create the
infrastucture and environment that allows
business to succeed. Businesses need the
roads,railways and pipelines to move product to
market especially in Canada which is a large land
mass with great distances to port. Governments
also need to have in place trade agreements
which give businesses market access.
Now what has the Harper government done.
Their lack of vision and success in getting
pipelines approved is abismal, oil companies are
forging ahead producing more oil need to get it to
market and therefore use railway due to lack of
pipeline space. Western canadian farmers have
been successful at increasing production as well
but apparentely nobody did the math on how
much rail capacity it would take to move it to
market position. The Harper government removed
the Cwb giving us supposed market freedom. In
their defence the Cwb would have sold our wheat
based on historical production and we would
have moved very little but everyone would be in
the same boat and the rest of the world would not
be as aware of our plight due to the Cwb's
secretive way of doing business.
As for the rest of Harpers policies, removing
funding from the CGC, reducing funding to public
seed developement, reducing the support levels
of agristability and implementing Upov 91 the only
benefit I see to farmers is spreading the cost of
certified seed over all grain sold instead of limiting
it to being applied on seed purchases. The only
people who are profiting from present
government policy are the graincos, the railways,
the fertilizer and herbicide companies. The
western canadian farmer on the whole is the
loser.

[freewheat]

What is the gov responsible for? In a perfect world in my eyes, not
much at all. I would prefer they get out of the way in a real way. As
far as pipeline approvals, the current govt is doing what it can.
Today is a different world though. There is a treehugger around every
corner. The media feeds them with a global warming spoon for decades,
and so they protest pipelines at every turn.

IMO, the best way for govt to help business, is to get the heck out of
business.

For us as farmers, if this means changing how we do things to avoid
this issue in the future, by growing something else, or doing things
differently, I am all for it. We have done this before in many ways as
a whole. It is not like difficulty in grain farming is something new
or strange. It is a perpetual problem. In a business with a perpetual
problem, one needs to adapt to the circumstances, not cry out to
government for help.

[sumdumguy]

We, as farmers have never had to worry about
the shipping side of the marketing equation
before because either that end was covered up
by the Wheat Board or special crop marketers
begged for cars while the "board" had first dibs.
An old special crops marketer says rail shipping
backlogs are a perrennial problem. Before Xmas
the rail seems to slow down for the holidays,
then comes the cold weather, snowstorms, etc.
And voila. PANIC by summer, the pipeline is
unplugged. He says that's what he has witnessed
for 30 years.

[Oliver88]

Hamloc, I believe you are incorrect regarding oil
pipelines. The Sask Party and federal
Conservatives have been the largest promoters of
pipelines and have been for a long time.

Opposition to pipelines: NDP, Liberals, David
Suzuki and his followers, media, hippies, natives,
Obama, etc.

[bucket]

The government should act as an unbiased regulator.

We don't need the government to invest, or as some say pick winners or losers, just ensure the rules are the same for everyone.

[grower99]

Hamloc you are right on! This govt is
getting totally out of the way and
leaving everything to the laissez faire
ideology of mr harper as far as ag is
concerned. He is spending millions of
our money to promote the oil industry
and giving free flights and expenses to
business leaders who could foot their
own bill! We need good solid regulations
that are logical and are enforced with
penalties where appropriate(to workers
and companies).

[bucket]

Good point. It has to balanced.

If you threaten to bring in back to work legislation, you have to be prepared to force management of the railroads to do something as well.

You also can't say that you can't use political interference because the railways are private companies.

And then squash private companies deals between BHP and Potashcorp while calling potash a strategic resource.

What is agriculture to Canada?

[wmoebis]

If they hadn't got rid of the CGC
assistant commissioners they could have
been on top of everything transportation,
contract deliveries, dockage issues etc
they were very valuable to producers and
should have been expanded not removed.

[sumdumguy]

The dismantling of agricultural supports is hurting
me for sure.

[sumdumguy]

I can't speak for the rest of you.

[fjlip]

It is apparent that business will do what is best for it's bottom line. But that is NOT the best for all others affected by their decisions. Sorry to say, more rules and regulations enforced by penalties is needed to herd them into proper actions. They are asking for it with their incompetence.