No Help From Saskatchewan's Minister of Agriculture

Belcarres - Friday June 15, 2001, by: Lloyd Pletz

lobbying
Four of us grass-roots farmers just spent last week in Ottawa, on the Hill, lobbying for farm aid . We met with approximately eighty bureaucrats and federal M.P.s (mostly Liberal) .....and took part by speaking at the Federal Standing Committee on Agriculture hearings at which the same time our western provincial agricultural ministers testified.

N.D.P.
politics
I, personally, was totally disappointed and disgusted with the performance of our Saskatchewan's agriculture minister .....Mr. Serby ! It appears Mr. Serby took his N.D.P. politics with him and put them before the well being of us Saskatchewan farmers and the well being of our entire province !

Mr. Serby DID - NOT :

DID - NOT

Did-Not ask for more farm aid dollars.(Didn't mention the call for 500 million more , etc.).

Did-Not tell the Feds that Sask. didn't get it's fair share of safety net dollars (NFLD $46.00 per acre .....SK. $4.00 per acre).

Did-Not ask for the safety net formula to be changed from cash receipts to a percentage of losses, acres, and taxpayers per province ..........so Saskatchewan farmers would get our fair share of Federal funding .....(equality at the farm gate across Canada).

Did-Not ask for the cash-filing of income-tax to be changed at the farm gate so !00 % of our farm losses show up at the Feds door.

Did-Not take down our Saskatchewan losses per seeded acre to give to the Feds. ALL provincial agr. ministers to date are still hiding those losses from our Federal government in their respective provincial departments of agr. and food.

Did-Not bring up the 60 - 40 problem .....the inequality at the provincial end per taxpayer. (All that is needed to fix it is a % of provincial taxpayers put into todays formula).

Did-Not bring up the 70 -70 problem...... the 70 % provided by AIDA ..now CFIP isn't the 70 % of losses allowed by today's Gatt rules.

Did-Not tell the Feds that Saskatchewan farmers had 62 % of the hurt in Canada at the farm-gate , has 47 % of the acres in Canada , and that Saskatchewan farmers received the LEAST AMOUNT of AID per province !!!!

Didn't mention that the Feds could spend 4.3 billion dollars this year into farm support and still have Canada ...Green under the Gatt rules.

Didn't mention that a lot of Saskatchewan farmers will receive pennies per acre while other provinces receive as high as $46.00 for EVERY ACRE in their province.

Didn't mention that the province of Quebec threw in $ 1.60 provincial for every Federal dollar into their provincial cost of production program and that increased the Quebec's share of the cash injection to the point where the province got reimbursed the province dollars to the point where it didn't cost the provincial coppers of Quebec , little or nothing. (I don't have the numbers for this one , but it's a fact).

Didn't complain that the Feds messed up on the first split on the Federal end.

Didn't tell the Feds that HE messed up on the second split at the provincial end... there will only be pennies per acre for millions of Saskatchewan's acres !

counter
All the items above that were not mentioned by Mr. Serby to our Federal government will take months if not years to counter by all of Saskatchewan's farmers and farm groups !

NOTHING
While Mr. Serby and Premiere Calvert tell our provincial news media (radio, T.V., newspaper) that they are lobbying for us ..........they are telling the Feds .....NOTHING !!!! Mr. Serby's testimony before the Federal Standing Committee is "PROOF" of that !!!

maxed out
Why is our provincial government helping the Federal government to bankrupt us farmers ? It will only serve to bankrupt our province and have the remaining urban wealth generators and taxpayers to pick up the load ......... and from what I see .....they are already maxed out !

Saskatchewan farmer :

Lloyd Pletz
Box # 674
Balcarres , Sask. Canada
SOG - OCO

Ph # 306-334-2374


Belcarres - Friday June 15, 2001, by: Lloyd Pletz

lobbying	Four of us grass-roots farmers just spent last week in Ottawa, on the Hill, lobbying for farm aid . We met with approximately eighty bureaucrats and federal M.P.s (mostly Liberal) .....and took part by speaking at the Federal Standing Committee on Agriculture hearings at which the same time our western provincial agricultural ministers testified.

N.D.P. politics	I, personally, was totally disappointed and disgusted with the performance of our Saskatchewan's agriculture minister .....Mr. Serby ! It appears Mr. Serby took his N.D.P. politics with him and put them before the well being of us Saskatchewan farmers and the well being of our entire province !

	Mr. Serby DID - NOT :
DID - NOT	Did-Not ask for more farm aid dollars.(Didn't mention the call for 500 million more , etc.). Did-Not tell the Feds that Sask. didn't get it's fair share of safety net dollars (NFLD $46.00 per acre .....SK. $4.00 per acre). Did-Not ask for the safety net formula to be changed from cash receipts to a percentage of losses, acres, and taxpayers per province ..........so Saskatchewan farmers would get our fair share of Federal funding .....(equality at the farm gate across Canada). Did-Not ask for the cash-filing of income-tax to be changed at the farm gate so !00 % of our farm losses show up at the Feds door. Did-Not take down our Saskatchewan losses per seeded acre to give to the Feds. ALL provincial agr. ministers to date are still hiding those losses from our Federal government in their respective provincial departments of agr. and food. Did-Not bring up the 60 - 40 problem .....the inequality at the provincial end per taxpayer. (All that is needed to fix it is a % of provincial taxpayers put into todays formula). Did-Not bring up the 70 -70 problem...... the 70 % provided by AIDA ..now CFIP isn't the 70 % of losses allowed by today's Gatt rules. Did-Not tell the Feds that Saskatchewan farmers had 62 % of the hurt in Canada at the farm-gate , has 47 % of the acres in Canada , and that Saskatchewan farmers received the LEAST AMOUNT of AID per province !!!! Didn't mention that the Feds could spend 4.3 billion dollars this year into farm support and still have Canada ...Green under the Gatt rules. Didn't mention that a lot of Saskatchewan farmers will receive pennies per acre while other provinces receive as high as $46.00 for EVERY ACRE in their province. Didn't mention that the province of Quebec threw in $ 1.60 provincial for every Federal dollar into their provincial cost of production program and that increased the Quebec's share of the cash injection to the point where the province got reimbursed the province dollars to the point where it didn't cost the provincial coppers of Quebec , little or nothing. (I don't have the numbers for this one , but it's a fact). Didn't complain that the Feds messed up on the first split on the Federal end. Didn't tell the Feds that HE messed up on the second split at the provincial end... there will only be pennies per acre for millions of Saskatchewan's acres !

counter	All the items above that were not mentioned by Mr. Serby to our Federal government will take months if not years to counter by all of Saskatchewan's farmers and farm groups !

NOTHING	While Mr. Serby and Premiere Calvert tell our provincial news media (radio, T.V., newspaper) that they are lobbying for us ..........they are telling the Feds .....NOTHING !!!! Mr. Serby's testimony before the Federal Standing Committee is "PROOF" of that !!!

maxed out	Why is our provincial government helping the Federal government to bankrupt us farmers ? It will only serve to bankrupt our province and have the remaining urban wealth generators and taxpayers to pick up the load ......... and from what I see .....they are already maxed out !

	Saskatchewan farmer : Lloyd Pletz Box # 674 Balcarres , Sask. Canada SOG - OCO Ph # 306-334-2374