HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-11-02, Page 19THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1988. PAGE 19.
Local producers left in lurch aschequesbounce
Dozens of local cattlemen were
left in the lurch last week when the
disappearance of the owner of the
Brussels Stockyards Limited and an
as-yet-undetermined amount of
money left them with cheques that
couldn’t be cashed.
Producers with amounts varying
as high as $60,000found the cheques
they were issued on Oct. 21 were not
being honoured after the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce moved
to protect its position by freezing all
bank accounts of the Stockyards. In
all, 729 head of cattle went through
the Oct. 21 sale, meaning losses
could be well over $700,000 for area
farmers.
Under the Ontario Ministry of
A griculture and Foods Financial
Protection program, farmers with
valid claims will receive 90 per cent
of their losses. The compensation,
DdugGroutofOMAF’s Financial
Protection Branch admitted, could
seem to be a long time coming for the
farmers. Realistically it would likely
be in the new year before the bulk of
claims are paid, he said.
Upwards of 50 claims for losses
had been telephoned in to OMAF by
Monday of this week, Mr. Grout
said. All farmers who had cattle sold
through the sale should notify the
ministry at 965-5841 that there is a
claim. They then have 30 days to file
a claim in writing. People from the
Ministry will interview the farmers,
probably beginning next week, and
the first claims could be registered
by Nov. 18, Mr. Grout said. Under
the legislation, however, the owner
of the stockyards must then be
notified of the claim. Since Mr.
Henschel isn’t readily available the
notice will be served on the company
headquarters. Only when all these
steps are followed can the process
ing of claims begin. While some
claims maybe paid out before the
year end, most won’t realistically be
settled until into the new year, Mr.
Grout said.
In the meantime, cattlemen are
left in a cashflow problem, but two
farmers who had their cheques
returned by the bank were philoso
phical about it when reached by The
Citizen Monday night. Leonard
Radford of Londesboro, who put 20
head of cattle through the sale Oct.
21, said the delay in payment
certainly wasn’t going to help his
cash flow situation and he expected
in the long run it would cost quite a
bit of money. He had deposited his
cheque the Friday of the sale and was
notified by his bank a week later that
the money had been deducted from
his account.
He said his family operation
would weather the storm because
they had been in business for a long
time, but he had sympathy for
people just getting started who
wouldn’t have the backing to go for a
long period without money owed to
them.
Ironically, Mr. Radford hadn’t
dealtwith the Stockyards much since
itwas sold by Bruce and Ross McCall
in May 1987, and had just started to
buy and sell through the yard
recently.
It was much the same situation
withRobert Alexander of Ethel, who
managed to keep his sense of
humour through the whole affair. He
hadn’t sold any cattle through the
Stockyards since June, he said and
he didn’t know “whylhadtopick
that day”. He said he was glad he’d
only had 12 head of cattle in the sale,
lOfor himself, onefor his son and
one for his wife. “It’s the first steer I
ever sold in my wife’s name and she
didn’t get the money for it", he
laughed. While the delay would
hurt, he saw no problem because he
expected his bank to be helpful.
While producers will get 90 per
cent coverage eventually through
the government plan, that isn’t
satisfactory to Bruce McCall, who
said last week “our interest is that
these producers we’ve dealt with for
so many years get 100 cents on the
dollar’’. “We're deeply concerned
with saving the name of Brussels
Stockyards and the community.”
Mr. McCall expressed frustration
with the bank for not honouring
farmers’ cheques when there was
enough money in the Stockyards
main account to cover the cheques.
Mr. McCall had sold the stockyard
to Mr. Henschel in May, 1987, and
had taken back a first mortgage on
the property. In addition, in order to
help set up a $600,000 line of credit,
he had pledged $170,000 backing
with the bank for Mr. Henschel’s
operating loan. Mr. McCall said he
was angry that last fall, without
notifying him, the bank had extend
ed Mr. Henschel a further line of
credit tobuy and sell cattle and set up
two other accounts. It was these
accounts that were short the money,
Mr. McCall said, and he wasn’t
happy that local farmers were in
effect being made to pay for the
bank’s mistake in loaning Mr.
Henschel more money.
“These fellows made this com
pany,’’ he said last week. “The
loyalty we had here is what made it
(the Stockyard) a success."
By this week Mr. McCall and son
Ross were making plans to try to get
the stockyard back on its feet by
applying for new licences under a
new company now being formed.
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