Challenges and hope go hand in hand

Farmers continue to face their challenges head on. With Thanksgiving behind us in Canada and still to come in the United States, not so good commodity prices, and parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta where Mother Nature dumped many inches of rain and then up to three feet of snow late in October, has many wondering how they will meet their yearly financial obligations.

You may ask … how can a farmer not meet their financial obligations just because of a partial crop loss? It is very simple. If you are a hard working wage earner or a business owner and suddenly your income stops for one year, and you still have all your daily, weekly, and monthly obligations, I think you get the point pretty quickly.

In the immediate surrounding area of Winkler, Morden, Carman, and points beyond, the crop was pretty amazing. Yet, one doesn’t have to go far, and I can’t outline what all areas experienced this year, but Altona east, south and southwest the crop had far too much rain by June and it seemed to never stop.

When production costs per acre run upwards of $250, $300, $400 and even higher, losing a crop and hoping to make those same investments again next year becomes pretty tough for some farmers.

Take a farm of 3,000 to 5,000 acres and multiply by let’s say $300 an acre of costs to raise that crop, one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the hurt and loss.

Don’t get me wrong, many farmers are in good shape and can weather that shortfall if you throw a little crop insurance, but many can’t, but somehow they do. We don’t have many farmers left and the ones that are, are for the most part exceptional at what they do, and that what they don’t know, they can hire from the various consulting groups, financial, marketing, and crops agronomy. With farm sizes growing, many farmers hire the help they need and stick with what they know best, producing that crop.

One of the areas causing farmers great concern is the rise in taxes tacked onto that land they use to produce food.

I keep hearing this when I speak to farmers that some areas and maybe most by now are seeing some astronomical increases in land taxes because of the huge increase in the value of that land. Farmers are sometimes their worst enemies by doing things that later comes back to haunt them. In this case, when land prices started to climb, and in some cases jump, suddenly those entities and the powers that be saw here was an opportunity to raise the assessments of that crazily rising land price.

This topic came up for discussion at a recent Keystone Agricultural Producers council meeting in Portage la Prairie. Producers had a lengthy discussion on the increase in municipal and school taxes, with many indicating their tax bills had more than doubled. KAP president Dan Mazier pointed to an RM where the increase resulted in a cost increase of over $29 per acre. In fact, I’m hearing that in some RM’s it is much higher, depending on what kind of land, who is buying, what crops they raise on it, and for how much.

KAP members called for continued pressure on the province to move to a taxation system where everyone – including homeowners and corporations – pay their fair share of the education tax.

I want to put in a good word for the PC government in Manitoba not just because they have their hands full with a mess left by the previous NDP government, not because of the hard work they’re putting in, and they area, but for the public consultations and hearing they are holding into all kinds of areas, issues, and hornets nests. Not to mention the horrendous mess left by the former government of Manitoba Hydro, the North (Port of Churchill and other places), where they seemed to indicate they were the great champions much to the chagrin of people, RM’s cities and towns in the South.

Every time I open my email, I seem to get another news release of the Manitoba government announcing another public consultation. Here is hoping they will make good use of the input they are getting, and that the people affected are participating. If we participate, and the government people listen, then we can get good working and practical policies. •