Harley Furtan on Agriculture in Canada

[ivbinconned]

Good to see you are still with us Dolin.
That would be great if you could provide us information about the details and dynamics of how things are done in your province.
Would like to have the numbers on all commodities if you can.

The medium age in rural Quebec is about half of what it is in Saskatchewn so there is a world of concern here as we are seeing land values slowly decline making it very hard for older men to get out.

[Horse]

IVB is that mabey ENVY I see you have towards Quebec tis-tis.

[ivbinconned]

Yes I do envy the way Quebec defends their Ag industry...using YOUR money Horse!
But I don't envey the breaks my neihbors get!!!

[SASKFARMER3]

Produce the numbers so that Canadians can see what happens in this country.
Western Canada got skinned by the liberals with the crow payout instead of 13 billion that was promised it ended up at 1 by the same liberals.
So yes we know the American programs and the over sea programs, Alberta and now show what happens in Quebec Please.

[ivbinconned]

SK3 perhaps you were not around here in sept 03 when I posted this...

posted Sep 6, 2003 11:04

From 1991 to 1999, there was a 78%reduction in direct federal expenditures in support of the agri-food sector in Sask. and a 69% reduction for Alberta. In the same time period there was only a 27% reduction in Quebec. I am NOT bad mouthing the Quebec farmer but I do "bad mouth" a system that bleeds money from Alberta to "lavishly" support farms in another province. If Alberta farmers don't mind this at least you would think they would rise up and insist that the money goes to there neighboring province where there grandpa and uncles farm.
Now that is just the federal expenditures! What about the "lavish" support of Alberta dollars the Quebec farmer gets through their provincial government via federal transfers...hush-hush...were not supposed to know. While I have seen my Saskatchewan assets drop in value 50% in the last 10 to 15 years, in Quebec the high level of Quebec government support is a major reason why average net worth of grain and oil seed producers increased 51.3% compared to 12.7 per cent in Ontario from 93 to 97; during the same period, average assets in Quebec increased by 53.5 per cent compared to 15.8% in Ontario.
When total crop receipts for Quebec were just $1.3 billion as compared to Ontario’s $3.1 billion the Quebec Ag ministry spent $527 million while Ontario's spent just $372 million! Neat what you can do as a "have not" province while Alberta sleeps.
I have said it before in these threads, what does a pick pocket do? He makes you look the other way! So we are told to look and blame the U.S. and Europe, while with in our own country the 21 year old Quebec ASRA programs (indirectly funded with ALBERTA money) heaps impressive benefits on, for example, in Quebec a 780 acre corn grower over a 9 year period ending in 99 amounted to $580,000, or an average of $64,445 per year with a 99 provision of $99,480! Not bad eh!
This program now includes all ag production and guess what, it is acreage based, cost of production based, and also has an interesting aspect to it in that the benefits are based on 90% of a skilled workers wages in Quebec, ie. nurse, teacher, government employees, etc.

Could this be why the average age of farmers in Quebec is much lower than say Saskatchewan? A generational turnover is taking place.

[dolin]

hi, that is the money we got from asra for a hectare of oat 278.28,canola 217.02,barley300.61,feed wheat332.72 human wheat274.44soya zero,year 2004. have a nice day

[Horse]

Lease land holders share app $100 mill for an average of app $15,000 in alta mabey not as much as quebec gets but still a gimmie.

[cowman]

So is this asra a direct subsidy or what? Barley at $300/ha equals $121/acre! Now on a 100 bu crop that is $1.20 a bushel!
Now if the government gave me a $1.20/bu subsidy on barley, would I be out of the cow business and into the grain business? Hmmm...I would sure have to consider it!