35 Replies to “The CWB: Buying Boats For Prairie Farmers”

  1. Hmmm, is the CWB by investing in grain transportation and grain elevators positioning itself for some major changes?

  3. “ex CEO of the CWB, became President and CEO of the Upper Lakes Grain Group (Soumat) in October 2007”
    Oh that’s just a coincidence I’m sure!

  4. Back in the grain-in-box-car days, lots of Thunder Bay elevators were operating, with many workers. Elevators on the river(s) are gone.
    Is the CWB exceeding it’s mandate?

  5. This sounds a lot like waht occurred with the Ontario Bean Board…..we woke up one morning with them owning an extensive railside elevator complex in East London On.
    It seems nothing in their charter involved owning premises…..

  6. I’m glad Mission came along when the other grain buyers left our part of the province. I don’t trust the CWB with our money.

  7. This smells really bad – is there any way the RCMP can be called in to see if charges can be laid for misuse of shareholders money? Conrad Black went to jail for less.

  8. charges can be laid for misuse of shareholders money
    Farmers aren’t shareholders, they’re slaves to the boards whims.

  10. I smell something to, being from small town nowhere
    Alberta, we fought the wheat board and lost.
    It’s like the want factory farms instead of family ones. To much power in the bureaucratic CWB IMHO
    And we don’t trust upward failed losers to run anything.
    MSM didn’t cover farmers getting arrested for trying to truck wheat across the US border because
    the CWB was ripping them off with profit margins.
    [d]

  11. yes this smells bad.
    who do you suppose ok’d the spending of 65 million of farmers money on this?
    we could sure use a good investigation into this as well as a mandate check of the cwb.
    time to call the mp again to get me out!
    i can see hundreds of more government jobs, more thousand dollar bonus cheques…cushy pensions, thats just for a start of course.
    what we really need is choice. like they have east of the manitoba border.
    then lets see if the canadian taxpayer wants to support this albetros….i bet they don’t, which should spell the end of the western cwb.

  14. http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/newsroom/media/directors/#code
    “F. Post Service Restrictions
    Directors, after they leave the CWB, are expected to refrain from taking improper advantage of their previous office. Directors must not allow prospects of outside employment to create a real or potential conflict of interest during their employment or appointment with the CWB. Directors must continue to observe their duties of confidentiality after they have left the employment or office of the CWB.”

  15. And from same link:
    http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/newsroom/media/directors/#code
    “H. Confidentiality or Post-Service Agreements
    CWB may employ confidentiality agreements with directors to govern the use of confidential information after the director ceases to serve the CWB. Factors which will be considered in determining whether such an agreement is implemented:
    (i) are the importance of the confidential information held or accessible to the director in the course of performing his or her duties to the CWB, and
    (ii) the degree to which an outside group or entity could gain a commercial advantage or cause loss or damage to the CWB by hiring the individual.”

  16. Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrhh, we got the ships mateys, now to get a Liberal govt elected and the boondoggle canal built across the prairies courtesy of the taxpayers dime. Aaarrrr?

  17. And lots of jobs for Canucks if you don’t mind the commute. These ships will be produced by Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries, a shipyard located in the Yangtze Delta area of China.

  20. How much grain would actually flow through the St. Lawrence Seaway and down the St Lawrence through Quebec if the western grain industry was built on free market principles as opposed to the current government monopoly rules? A less regulated marketplace would have found ways to circumvent the narrow funnel that exists via the seaway and the purchase of ships on the farmers behalf would have been unnecessary.

  24. We have much the same fascinating confluence of interests in the wind power game here in StupidTario. Something about some Grand Poobah of the Liberal Party being Grand Poobah of the wind power company that’s benefiting from all these nice green subsidies.

  26. I have sent a request to Solicitor General Vic Toews requesting an investigation of the Board and management for breech of shareholder trust regarding the ship purchase, weather bug, scholarships, advertizing on the WTO talks. I think these are all outside the Boards legal mandate (as set out in the Act) of “marketing wheat and barley, in an orderly manner. I have made the argument that the government created and maintains the CWB and has a duty to hold the Board personal accountable for their actions. Vic Toews contact is Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

  28. I actively farmed for over 45 years.Iwas a pedigreed seed grower for most of those years.The reason that I became a seed grower,was that I could market my grain outside the jurisdiction of the CWB.There was NOTHING that forced more farmers out of farming than the CWB and their lack of marketing of grain in tight markets.There were thousands that ceased farming in the sixties and early seventies because of a restrictive quota system and NO cash flow.It happened in the fifties also when community rinks were filled with unsold wheat.

  29. I see some people in the media have tried to justify this empire-building foolish business because the CWB also purchased grain cars for the railways back in the 80s.
    Maybe the following article will illustrate the huge difference of then and now.
    “Through the 1970s, Canada, like many other countries, found that high inflation, large fiscal deficits, and rising public debt exacted a heavy toll on the economy. The lack of capacity contributed to the economic problems of farmers, shippers and railways working in Western Canada. In 1972, the prairie farmers were concerned the performance of the grain transportation system was reaching critical proportions. According to the Discussion Paper, shipments to port were far behind target and the railways were unable to catch up. The Discussion Paper also stated that costs to both the prairie and Canadian economies as a result of the loss and deferred grain sales were substantial. Not confirmed in this evaluation by other sources, the Discussion Paper noted that in 1977-78 alone, lost and deferred sales to the CWB were valued at $600 million while ship demurrage costs (compensation paid because a ship is detained beyond the scheduled time of departure) of $21.9 million were incurred.”
    The full report is at:
    http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/corporate-services/des-reports-2006-hoppercars-318.htm
    So when did the CWB lose $600 million (in 1980 dollars) lately in grain sales and how much demurrage have they paid on Great Lakes shipping problems?
    But then maybe the CWB is getting into the shipping business because they sure in hell are not in the business of selling and moving wheat as I will show later.

  30. This latest escapade of the CWB going outside of its mandate really should be a call for the whole business community of western Canada to call for the complete privatization of the grain industry.
    Selling grain does not just affect farmers like the CWB pretends – it affects everybody in every prairie community.
    And the paper-shuffling CWB has quit selling CWRS wheat as the following facts show.
    They just haven’t told anybody.
    Saskatchewan first produced hard red spring wheat crops over 10 mil mts in 1952 (was 12 mil mt) and 10 mil mts in 1953.
    Guess what.
    Sask has produced on 2 (two) crops of over 10 mil mts in the last 17 years, since 1993.
    1996 was 12 mil mts and 1999 was 10 mil mts.
    And the last 12 yrs are all less than 10 mil mts.
    Juxtapose this Liberal/CWB nongrowth in selling grain with the fact that the world population in 1955 was 2.8 bil and there is now 7 billion 2011.
    And Manitoba shouldn’t laugh either.
    In 1999, farm debt in Man was $3.4 bil and by 2009 it had doubled to $7.0 bil.
    How’s that working for you CWB supporters?
    Sask debt went up 40% and Ab debt went up 55% over the same period.
    There is not a better example than these stats to show why politicians/govt should not be meddling and muddling in the grain business just like Justice Turgeon wrote in his 1935 report on the CWB.
    ‘Government should remain out of the grain trade’.

  31. HMS Lynch- HMS Hall
    With of course the HMS-Progressive
    Named after famously world traveled bureaucrats . At tax payer expense, while being free wheeling free-speech censors.
    Fits nicely into the CWB Universe me thinks.
    JMO

  32. Just want to add that Sask did produce spring wheat crops of over 10 mil mts 13 yrs out of 18 over the period from 1976 to 1993.
    Highest was 14.9 mil in 1986.
    Lowest was 5.4 mil mts in the drought of 1988.
    It is truly something to behold that self-indulgent meddling politicians can take one of the greatest assets in the world in producing grain and turn it into a liability.
    Mind-boggling.

  33. CWB says there is a 15% return on farmers investment, sounds to good to be true very likely not true. Shipping firm assured shipping of cwb grains, thanks for farmer fiancial backing (suckers).
    With 15% return, lots of money funds would have jumped at this investment opertunity.(ex Ontario teachers pension fund).
    I think the CWB and Western Canadian Farmers have been led down the garden path by this shipping firm and the CWB directors and management.

  34. The Directors may hold back our wheat payments and build a dry dock for them in Saskatchewan. I hope this don’t give them an idea.

  35. Name those ships…
    #1-SS Incestuous. (They behave inappropriatly to thier own family of farmers)
    #2-SS Nepotism. (They hire from their own family of workers)

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