To the editor: If someone had told me the Canadian Wheat Board would have a chairman who was not a farmer, I would have said they were crazy. How could an organization which represents farmers have anyone other than a farmer as its chairman? But Gerry's Grain Company is nothing like the former CWB.
It has no farmer-elected directors, Gerry Ritz appointed them all. Its chairman is an ex grain company executive from a failed grain company. Instead of making money for farmers, Gerry's grain company will be taking money from farmers! It is no longer the farmers' voice in negotiating freight rates, ocean shipping, blending, or even grain handling fees. The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reports that it expects Viterra alone to earn an extra $40 to $50 million a year without the CWB. That's coming from farmers!
Some are now calling Gerry's botch up, another grain company. However, it has no elevators, no agents, no delivery points, few field staff, no terminal elevators, and a mandated life expectancy of five years or less. This doesn't sound like a winning recipe. Sounds like buying shares in an Ostrich farm!!
Leo Howse, Porcupine Plain, SK.
