Today's Golden Parachute goes to...

[Fransisco]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/agriculture/Ottawa-pumps-349M-into-revamped-wheat-board-160744015.html


Ottawa pumps $349M into revamped wheat board

OTTAWA – The federal government is injecting $349 million into the Canadian Wheat Board to cover off costs as its moves from a monopoly grain marketer to a voluntary one.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the announcement from the CWB headquarters in Winnipeg this afternoon.

He said the government is committed to helping the CWB become a successful entity as a voluntary board, and this money will help it do that.

"The revitalized Canadian Wheat Board is open for business," said Ritz.

The funds will help cover off severance payments to about 300 people who are being laid off as the CWB makes the transition to a voluntary company. Legislation eliminating the monopoly the CWB has had on prairie wheat and barley sales for nearly seven decades passed Parliament last year. As of August, prairie farmers can choose, for the first time since the Second World War, whether to sell their grain through the CWB or to another grain company.

The money will also be used to cover off costs such as pensions and post-retirement benefits, rejigging computer systems, and generally making the company smaller and more efficient, said Ritz.

"Nothing good ever comes easy," he said.

Earlier this year Ritz unveiled a $25-million, five-year program to give incentives to grain companies to use the Port of Churchill to ship grain. During the monopoly, the CWB was the main user of the port and the northern Manitoba town feared losing one of its main employers if the business dried up.

[Fransisco]

Hmm...didn't mean to give that one a thumbs up.

[bucket]

Let's see here. 300 people getting laid off and it costs 300 plus million. I may be slightly retarded but that is a million a person. I realize not all the money is going to severances but this is outrageous.

60000 farmers had to beg for a too wet payment a couple years ago and Ritz just doles out the money to these leeches.

Surely to christ they were paying into a pension plan on their own.

[sumdumguy]

Unions have negotiated severence payments into
the collective agreements. The amount you gat
paid is dependant on the years worked and your
salary.



If your salary is $44,000 a year and you had
worked for CWB for ten years, you would get paid
(I think) one week per year of service, which
would amount to about $8000 less deductions.
Not huge, by any means. By the time income tax,
union, and every other deduction is taken out,
you would get about $5000. But you have lost
indeterminant status.

[redbaron]

Has there been any mention of what is happening with
the two ships that where bought on our behalf?

[bucket]

the ships.

Bought using farmers money. If the cwb no longer owns them then the money should get refunded to the farmers, not the cwb.

Remember all monies are returned to farmers.

[jdepape]

All assets of the old CWB will go to the new CWB.
That includes:
- the hopper cars
- the lakers
- the CWB building in Winnipeg
- the $120 million computer system that still wasnt
finished and isn't the right system for a voluntary
marketer so they have to buy a new system
- the Contingency Fund - whatever remains in it
on July 31

A question to ponder, since we are all still
interested in those lakers:

What money is being used to pay for them?
A. 2011-12 pool accounts
B. The Contingency Fund
C. This new injection of funds
D. Past and future pool accounts

[wilagro]

You idiots wanted the old CWB gone so quit whining about the costs of winding it down. Geez, you'd fire everyone without any kind of severance..what a rotten bunch you are.

[checking]

E. All of the above.

I believe the sacrifices will be worth it.

[Fransisco]

Gee Will that means so much coming from someone who thinks their neighbor should go to jail for selling their own effing grain. You're not exactly someone who is bubbling over with compassion yourself.

[wd9]

Wilagro, despite the 50 thousand posts, we
wanted the the monopsony gone, not the
CWB.

Get it yet??? Unlikely. But thought
posting number 50,001 might help.

[jdepape]

Wilagro - I think we all recognize this money is for
much more than severance - and I sincerely doubt
anyone here would want to deny anyone's fairly
earned severance.

You have to admit that $349 million is an awful lot
of money and it does raise some eyebrows.

Maybe we should look at this the way Butch
Harder looked at the CWB (instead of permit book
holders, this time its Canadian taxpayers)

For each taxpayer in Canada it amounts to about
the cost of a cup of coffee. Ok, maybe a few cups
- but you get the idea.

Compared to what keeping the single desk would
have cost, it's pretty cheap.

Onward and upward.

[blackpowder]

Gee, what was the annual cost to taxpayer all the other years?? Nothing? BS

[highwayman]

It was estimated in 1947 that the first four years
alone, the monopoly cost Western Canadian grain
farmers $400 million. Fast forward 65 years and
the accumulated loss to farmers is staggering. If it
takes 350 million to wind down this blood sucking
useless organization, so be it. It will be the best
money any government has spent in 3
generations.

[furrowtickler]

yuup, as Dave Hester would shout