Dear Editor:
As a farmer who has used deferred grain tickets I would like to provide comments on the Federal Governments consultation on deferred cash tickets for the delivery of grains.
I find it utterly dismaying that in the budget document deferred cash tickets were somehow linked to the role of the Canadian Wheat Board. In fact the Board never marketed some of the grains that deferred tickets are issued on! This ignorance of fact and detail really makes me wonder about the quality and impartiality of the information you are being provided with. It shows the lack of depth and expertise within the Departments of Finance and Agriculture.
It would appear the Conservative mentality of blaming the CWB for everything still exists and is thriving within the Liberal government. How can you have an effective public consultation to develop public policy when you are being provided such inaccurate information?
Matters of fact aside, the grain deferral cheque initiative is a good one for Canada and producers. It allows producers to deliver grain throughout the year and still manage tax positions. This avoids creating bottle necks and underutilization in the transportation system and helps spread traffic flow throughout the year.
We have a physically constrained grain handling system. To actually deliver all prairie grain to port, our handling system must run at almost full capacity during the entire year. The option of deferring cash tickets allows farmers and grain handlers to optimise the delivery, handling, and transportation of grain without regard to short term tax implications.
Can you imagine how dead the roads would be in the last part of December and how plugged and busy the roads would be in the first part of January if the deferred system was removed? It would be conceivable for elevators sit empty with laid off staff at some times during the year if farmers did not have the option of deferring cash tickets!
It appears that the Federal government is looking at eliminating the cash ticket deferral for farmers simply as a way to extract more short term tax revenue without regard to the consequences simply because we are a small group while ignoring the much larger and longer term deferrals provided by the RRSP program. As a producer and tax payer I support the retention of all grain cash ticket deferrals!
Kyle Korneychuk
