SEPTEMBER 22, 2000
SASK. POOL UNDER SIEGE BY THE SAME
GLOBAL FORCES RAVAGING FAMILY FARMS
SWIFT CURRENT, Sask.--In an August 3 news release, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Vice-President Marvin Shauf stated:
"Agriculture has evolved at a rapid pace. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool anticipated the changes brought on by government decisions, like transportation reform, and responded by providing the facilities network farmers require to stay competitive in a global marketplace."
The current troubles at the Pool calls such statements into question. NFU Board member Stewart Wells also questions SWP's characterization of change as something it is merely responding to. He stated: "Sask. Wheat Pool isn't just responding to changes, it's driving them. Transportation reform and other deregulation initiatives were not just 'government decisions,' Sask. Pool and the rest of the grain industry pushed government to make these changes."
"Given the Pool's advocacy of deregulation, free markets, free trade, and globalization, it is ironic to see these forces chewing up the Saskatchewan Pool in exactly the way these forces chew up Saskatchewan farmers," said Wells.
He added: "The Pool thought it would be a winner in the new global, free-trade, free-market economy. It turns out that neither Canadian farmers nor Canadian grain companies are winners."
Wells concluded that the Pool remains blinded by ideology. "Pool management cannot understand that in a global, deregulated environment, the large eat the small and that they, like farmers, are small. The Pool continues to ask for more of the same deregulation that is destroying it: Currently, the Pool is pushing to expel the Canadian Wheat Board from transportation. The Pool can't see that such a move will not only hurt farmers, it will hurt the Pool and the entire Canadian economy. The government must cease taking advice from corporations like the Sask. Wheat Pool who so clearly fail to understand the current situation."
SWP shares are below $2.75, down from over $23.00. Unconfirmed reports state the Pool has approached the Saskatchewan government for a $500 million bailout. At current share prices, the government could buy SWP for approximately $100 million.
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For More Information:
Stewart Wells, NFU Board member: (306) 773-6852
Darrin Qualman, Executive Secretary: (306) 652-9465
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