Ottawa
February
20, 2004
OPEN LETTER TO THE FEDERAL MINISTER
OF AGRICULTURE
The Hon. Bob Speller, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Speller:
It has been
nine very long months since the lone case of BSE closed borders to live Canadian
cattle exports, and the financial and emotional burden for our producers
continues to take its toll. Day after day I am hearing from farmers in my riding
of Yorkton-Melville who are barely holding onto their animals and, in many
cases, barely holding onto their farms. In less than two weeks the situation for
cattle owners has gone from bleak to devastating and has already become tragic
for some. The continuing uncertainty also makes it extremely difficult for
farmers to get operating loans for the upcoming growing season.
What producers
need is financial relief to help get them through this crisis. The farmers have
gone to banks for help, but the lending institutions are also well aware of the
volatile situation the industry is in right now and are not lending money. Brian
Patron, a farmer in the Goodeve area of my riding, needs just $50,000 to keep
going, but was advised by a banker to give up what he has worked so hard for and
look for work in the Alberta oil patch. Those heeding that type of advice and
selling are losing an average of $600 per animal at the time of sale compared to
what they were receiving a year ago, and that does not include input costs to
this point.
Judy Holod,
who farms in the Langenburg area, sold four feeder calves weighing between 350
and 500 lbs for $800 – one year ago those same four calves would have been
worth $1,500. On Feb. 3, 2004, Greg Hemmings of Esterhazy sold six head for
$1,801.65. When he sold six in December he received about $6,000. The drop in
cattle prices in this area since December alone is staggering. On average the
cattle in Saskatchewan are worth about half as much as they were a year ago.
Whole herd dispersal auctions are being held daily in my riding. In one auction
today, 90 head will be
Our farmers
are already supporting 2.2 million more cattle than this time last year and that
number will only continue to grow. Calving season has already started on many
farms and that means higher veterinarian bills and more feed to keep the
expanding herd not only fed for weight value, but also fed just to stay alive.
We have already seen a case where underfed animals have been seized from a
rancher in the Lethbridge area. That producer was doing everything he could to
stay afloat during this crisis, but still lost everything. If nothing is done to
assist our farmers, we will see more starved cattle and more seizures.
Using
words from a Feb. 18 news release issued by your own department, “the
agriculture and agri-food sector is an important driver of the Canadian economy.
It provides one out of every seven jobs in the country and contributes between
$5 to $7 billion to Canada's annual trade surplus.” Knowing that, how can this
government turn its back on our agriculture producers when they so desperately
need financial relief? A further collapse in the agriculture industry will
affect not only the farmers of this country but it will also see that trade
surplus and those ag-related jobs disappear.
I urge you not to stand by and watch as these producers lose all they have worked for. There are too many lives hanging in the balance and they can’t wait “months” for the border to reopen – they need their government to get involved now.
Yours
sincerely,
Garry Breitkreuz, MP
Yorkton-Melville