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- Are you more like George Bush or Nelson Mandella? Pope Jean Paul II or the Dalai Lama? Take a 5 minute test and find out where you fit. Email me your results if you want along with which Alberta Party you support today; PC, Liberal or NDP. I'll compile the results and post them here; anonymously of course.
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Ralph Klein has gone and it is time to retire Ralph's World. Thanks to all of you who have supported this venture by contributing material and through your comments. It has been fun.
Should we get another blog underway? Let me know your thoughts by e-mailing me at johnnyslow@gmail.com.
John Slow
January 1, 2007
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
BSE Aid: Albertans - zero. Foreign Packers - Jackpot!
This posted on behalf of the Alberta Social Credit party.
With the review complete by Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn into the spending of $400 million in BSE aid, one thing is clear: The winner in this whole ordeal has been the American-owned packing companies operating inAlberta.
While farmers and ranchers have had to withstand dropping prices for their cattle, prices at the supermarkets remained stable. The Auditor General said the aid program had the effect of "distorting" cattle markets, driving down prices for producers. So why did consumers continue to pay the same prices?
A telling statistic is that profits at both Lakeside Packers and Cargill's Alberta operations almost quadrupled over the past year! On top of that, Lakeside and Cargill also benefited directly to the tune of $42 million in aid from the government.
A key problem, as Dunn pointed out, is a lack of slaughter capacity in the province. The Social Credit Party supports the efforts of beef producers to organize meat-packing cooperatives that will be help alleviate this problem, while ensuring profits remain where they should be - with the producers themselves.
We need fresh ideas from the government on how to deal with this problem. But we fully expect that once again, the Klein government's answer will be to devise another phony "aid" scheme designed to buy the farm vote in the run-up to the expected fall election.
It appears that 33 years of rule has made the PCs forget about average Albertans. Just whose side are they on? Are they with average Albertans, or against us?
What we really need is a change in government.
With the review complete by Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn into the spending of $400 million in BSE aid, one thing is clear: The winner in this whole ordeal has been the American-owned packing companies operating inAlberta.
While farmers and ranchers have had to withstand dropping prices for their cattle, prices at the supermarkets remained stable. The Auditor General said the aid program had the effect of "distorting" cattle markets, driving down prices for producers. So why did consumers continue to pay the same prices?
A telling statistic is that profits at both Lakeside Packers and Cargill's Alberta operations almost quadrupled over the past year! On top of that, Lakeside and Cargill also benefited directly to the tune of $42 million in aid from the government.
A key problem, as Dunn pointed out, is a lack of slaughter capacity in the province. The Social Credit Party supports the efforts of beef producers to organize meat-packing cooperatives that will be help alleviate this problem, while ensuring profits remain where they should be - with the producers themselves.
We need fresh ideas from the government on how to deal with this problem. But we fully expect that once again, the Klein government's answer will be to devise another phony "aid" scheme designed to buy the farm vote in the run-up to the expected fall election.
It appears that 33 years of rule has made the PCs forget about average Albertans. Just whose side are they on? Are they with average Albertans, or against us?
What we really need is a change in government.
