Will our government ever support us?

[gwynplaine]

Oh, yeah:

Emrald1: I completely agree! The BSE crisis, however, is most certainly not a health or safety or science issue, it's a non-tarriff trade barrier. (Canada, however, has a few of those herself... we're kind of the Black Pot, over here... topic for another day) THIS is where government belongs. And what have they done? Next to nothing.

I have a solution: Test evey exported animal for BSE, we'll find some. Burn those carcasses, assign no blame, just get them out of the system. Get the Japanese (and other) markets back, beat the Americans to the punch, by only exporting certified, BSE-Free beef (I'll get my tattoo artist to design the stamp)... Why do we think the only place we can send our beef is South of 49? They sure don't want it, as shortsighted as R-CALF and Tom Daschle are. It may cost a few dollars per head, but at least the Net Revenue would increase... would it not? I'm not in the Slaughter industry, not too familiar with the Logistics, so help me out a bit here. I await reply...

[cakadu]

In the education argument, it depends on which side you listen to. The ATA says for example, that if they hire back 250 teachers in the Calgary district, then they are still 50 short because they laid off 300 at the end of June 2003. Who is included in this 300 - substitute teachers, regular teachers - how is the number made up? I'm still unclear as to how class size has become such a big issue because for years many of us grew up in classes over 30 and I for one don't think my education was hurt any by it. The flip side of that is that there seem to be more problems in the classroom these days and teachers do have to contend with parents who believe little Johnny or Jane couldn't possibly be the bad apple the teacher say he or she is. Couple that with the meteoric rise - right or wrong - of cases of Attention Deficit (5% in the 1960's compared with over 30% today) and you do have teachers dealing with more than before. (The ADHD argument is another one that could be postponed for another day and thread.)

It would be interesting to find out what is preventing recent education graduates from finding work - are jobs really that scarce or just jobs in popular locations i.e. the city vs rural areas?

I agree that we don't want to become wards of the government and dependant on them to get by in the farming community. One of the ways that government could help without us becoming too dependent on them is to enact policies and infrastructure that will make it so that our value-added industries could run more efficiently.

Many of our policies favor the big 3 in livestock for example - beef, pork, chicken - yet there are niche markets that could be filled with other meats, or even the big 3 for that matter, if there were different policies in place. I'm not suggesting for a moment that we do anything to compromise food safety or environmental stewardship, just look at ways to make even moving product east to west easier.

I also wholeheartedly agree with not being able to understand our almost complete reliance on the American markets. Yes, they are close, yes they buy a great deal from us - how much of that is related to our lower dollar is a subject for debate too. Every time our dollar goes up in comparison to the US dollar, purchases go down.

I understand many of the points you've made gwynplaine and certainly don't take any of them personally. I may not necessarily agree with some of the points you've made, however, that is what makes it an exciting and challenging discussion.

[gwynplaine]

Cakadu: Thanks, and I agree with you.

The Education issue, to me, boils down to the lack of value society places on teachers. We support paying them what we figure they're worth; to me a lot. To others, they're glorified babysitters. And, that scares me. There is a lot of innefficiency in the system that needs to be trimmed, however when there's a budget cutback the first thing that goes is teachers, not administration. Huge admin costs, in every government department.

Anyways. I'm out of time, I'll be back soon.

[cowman]

In a round about way I do agree with you on a lot of things! For example, that the BSE crisis has nothing to do with science or food safety, and everything to do with non-tariff trade barriers and muscling us out of a market.
I also agree that our federal government has done little to live up to their responsibilities for trade and food safety! Two areas that they are directly responsible for and are paid very well for!
Now somehow or other our various governments, over the course of the last several years, have decided that health care and education are their responsibilities? And I will agee they did it with the support of the majority of the people. Thus today we have the "nanny" state? I wonder if we had a real "free society" what a teacher/doctor would make? If the whole thing was wide open with no union saying who could teach and who could heal? I watched a show the other day on tv where some kid cured Ronnie Hawkins of pancreatic cancer after the doctors sent him home to die. Now if this kid tried to hang out his shingle as a doctor, how long do you think he would be allowed to practice? And yet he has a gift that no other doctor has?
Do you think we should have the right to seek out what we believe is in our own best interests, or does the government know what is in our best interests?
Given the situation in agriculture today in Canada I agree we all need to realize that we have to do what we think is best for us. When we have a federal and provincial government that have no intention of living up to their responsibilities, I would suggest we need to consider how viable of an industry it is? Maybe we all need to go back to school and become teachers, doctors, government experts etc.? Apparently that is what is important in Canada today?