Urban perspective

[Ache4Acres]

I was at an event on the weekend attended primarily by high level sask Govt officials, professionals and business owners. Discussion fell to farmers and there was one restauranteur/real estate mogul who was flat out angry with the way farmers don’t pay pst on ag equipment. He was absolutely certain that restaurants are more important to the economy than agriculture.

I think the lack of appreciation for the contribution of agriculture to the economy is real.

Our deputy minister of finance was in the heat of the discussion and he was bang on in defending agriculture in the province and in his arguments against carbon tax.

[farmaholic]

Tell them to buy a farm......its a free country, have at it!

[furrowtickler]

So where does this restaurant owner get his food from ? And how is it generated ?

[Horse]

Tell them to buy a farm......its a free country, have at it!

That's such a lame statement I just have to comment,, buy a railroad, farm machinery dealer, build your own terminal, how about building your own roads its a free country why whine if things don't suit you, buy/build your own.

[farmaholic]

Horse, that's a poor comparison. Now if you told me to buy a small independant ag fert/chem supplier or some other business of comparable size(assets and income) that would be a fair statement. Sounds like the tycoon still might be multiple times bigger than the larger "welfare" farms. If I knew which restaurants he owned/operated I would possibly just boycott them and encourage others to do so as well.

[Blaithin]

I was at an event on the weekend attended primarily by high level sask Govt officials, professionals and business owners. Discussion fell to farmers and there was one restauranteur/real estate mogul who was flat out angry with the way farmers don’t pay pst on ag equipment. He was absolutely certain that restaurants are more important to the economy than agriculture.

I think the lack of appreciation for the contribution of agriculture to the economy is real.

Our deputy minister of finance was in the heat of the discussion and he was bang on in defending agriculture in the province and in his arguments against carbon tax.

Urban people don't have the ability to connect many agricultural dots.

I've been doing my volunteering in Calgary lately and the teachers have the option of two presentations: Cattle or Grains. I'm not a butcher so the Cattle presentation focuses on animal husbandry mostly - breeds, purpose, feed, health, etc, not meat and cuts. The grains are focused on just the main 6 grown around here - Wheat, Durum, Barley, Canola, Peas and Lentils. How they're graded and a bit on quality control and uses in our food.

Multiple teachers have said, because so many children are vegetarians for religious reasons, the grains may be a better fit. Plus then they'd learn more about Alberta vegetation. I can sit back and roll my eyes at that concept but they really don't have any idea. To them, there isn't much to know about cattle beyond they're meat and because grains are plants, obviously a presentation about grains is going to teach about a lot of different vegetation.

Of course, I get a bit of the last laugh because I can go in and teach them. When people, like your restauranteur, are set in their opinion, it's hard to actually teach them reality.

[furrowtickler]

Tell them to buy a farm......its a free country, have at it!

Agreed , tell him to grow his own food supplies.

[furrowtickler]

And then show him this graph , courtesy of hems ....

Yup , nothin but good times ...

[Oliver88]

It would be good to know which restauranteur/real estate mogul this was so that a guy can keep the $ saved from not paying PST away from their businesses.

[woodland]

Crazy question from Alberta here. The GST is charged on equipment and supplies but you submit and get it back later. Is PST following different rules than its federal version? We’ve bought stuff out of Saskatchewan and as long as it’s getting shipped here it was PST exempt.

Hope we don’t ever have to deal with such a thing here but I’m not holding my breath with how fast the debt is racking up.......

[sumdumguy]

Must have been a fun evening. No fun being a politician either - no matter where he goes, he’s on the hot seat. People just have no idea. Funny Assfarmer isn’t piping up yet.

[SASKFARMER3]

It is only going to get worse.

City people are now some three generations off the farm.

The above comment shows just how stupid some of these smart people actually are.

These are the same ones who cry when pst is added to restaurant bills.

Oh they cant make a go of it at 5% more.

But sad part is most cities and workers would be wiped out in a instant in 18% interest on their so called homes and real-estate empires.

Smart people who really are stupid.

[wmoebis]

It is only going to get worse.

City people are now some three generations off the farm.

The above comment shows just how stupid some of these smart people actually are.

These are the same ones who cry when pst is added to restaurant bills.

Oh they cant make a go of it at 5% more.

But sad part is most cities and workers would be wiped out in a instant in 18% interest on their so called homes and real-estate empires.

Smart people who really are stupid.

18% interest wouldn't hurt farmers?

[SASKFARMER3]

Some would be gone it would be a way of thinning the group.

ah fun times.

[bucket]

Did any one remind the restaurant owner that he can recoup any costs by charging more for his recooked meals from china?

Haven't seen a restaurant meal go down in price like grain and meat prices but farmers are always blamed for any increase if commodity prices rise.

Maybe someone should start pointing fingers at the Galen Westons of the world for problems with taxes....pricing fixing gets rewarded....instead of fines and back taxes on illegal activities.