Will farmers share in Dreyfus win over railway?
(February 4, 2019) A couple of weeks ago there was a small news story about Louis Dreyfus successfully suing CN rail for failing to provide enough grain cars to its elevators. CN trotted out the usual excuses for being tardy: it gets cold in the winter, there was a lot of grain to ship, and they have other customers. It must be easy being a railway lawyer when it is just cut and paste from...
Read MoreWhat’s the Wheat Board and why do farmers need it back?
(February 23, 2016) First, let’s be clear. The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) was not a monopoly, or supply management, nor was it a socialist institution imposed on the powerless west to help a bunch of illiterate immigrant farmers as some would have you believe. The CWB was more than just its office building, rail cars and grain ships. The CWB was the most successful of capitalist...
Read MoreAnother year, another transportation study
It is 18 months after Ottawa killed the CWB, grain is not moving and prairie prices have fallen by half on wheat and barley. Farmers are no longer being paid for their high protein wheat; Our major customers are complaining about delays and a lack of quality assurance so they’re going elsewhere. Even the western Australians are eating our lunch on feed barley. Could the fact they are on...
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