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The Rural Voice, 1987-11, Page 12Ward & Uptigrove CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS Listowel 291-3040 Mitchell 348-8412 R.B. Karcher, C.A. C.W. Brouse, C.A. C.D. Newell, C.A. R.H. Loree, C.A. R.E. Uptigrove, C.A. G.J. Martin, C.A. R.C. Roswell, C.A. Where Hopper Goes the Water Flows. Call Collect Neil 527-1737 James 527-0775 Durl 527-0828 W.D. HOPPER & SONS • WATER WELL DRILLING R.R. #2 Seaforth Since 1915 SHOOT IT TODAY... PLAY IT TONIGHT! Now through the magic of video- graphy, you can shoot your memories today, and play them back tonight in your own living room. Next time you're out having fun with the family, take along your video camera... and save YOUR lives on tape! F�ernovMe8 4g - MAC �✓ CAMPBELL'S CAMERAS Royal Bank Block GODERICH 524-7532 10 THE RURAL VOICE THE FCC CRISIS: NO MORE TIME FOR TALK John Wise lives only one county away from me, but when it comes to the way he approaches the farm crisis, he's from another planet. An internal report compiled by the FCC and released only recently warns that without radical changes in hand- ling the cases of insolvent farm fam- ilies, the federal Farm Credit Corpor- ation won't be able to meet even half of its foreclosure case load. In an interview, Wise responded: "I don't know why everybody is in this big rush ... We approach this from the humanitarian, compassionate position where the FCC will be sitting down with each and every client in financial difficulty ... people who haven't been able to pay FCC for three, four, five, six, or seven years. All these people aren't going to survive. Do they want to rush these people off the land?" On the planet I inhabit, leaving people hanging by their wit's end for years on end is anything but com- passionate. The FCC says it has sufficient administrative and financial resources to handle a maximum of 4,000 foreclosures in the next three years, which could leave an additional 5,500 in limbo. What the situation demands are some innovative "arrangements" both between insolvent farmers and the FCC as well as between the govern- ment and the FCC. The internal paper looked specifically at equity financing to ease the crisis faced by farmers, the FCC, and private lenders. The federal cabinet has, for the present, sent the paper to the House agriculture committee for scrutiny, but the discussion is revealing. The paper estimates that within three years the FCC could be left holding a "land bank" of more than 2.2 million acres of foreclosure land. Already the FCC holds 208,000 acres of liquidated land, but the FCC thinks it may have to recover another 4,000 to 6,000 properties, which would leave it with 1.5 to 2.2 million acres on its hands. Rather than land- bank property, private bankers are more likely to sell liquidated land on the open market, which might drive down already depressed land prices further, the paper warns. The paper suggests the government might establish a Farm Development Corporation which, by providing equity financing, would also help lenders administer recovered proper- ties and high risk loans. The corpor- ation would secure funding through convertible and preferred shares, convertible debentures, commodity - linked bonds, and common shares. A cynic would note that Canadian agriculture seems headed toward government-owned farm land at the same time as communist countries are moving toward farmer -owned land. It should be noted too that aside from Wise's "humanitarian" reason- ing, it's bad business that he suggest debt be allowed to dangle another five years beyond the seven years some FCC clients have been unable to meet their commitments. Technically the FCC is bankrupt, which begs the question of how long bankers, taxpayers, and other politi- cians will tolerate this insolvency without demanding innovative attempts to right the situation. In an interview, Wise said he's neutral to the idea of equity financing being pushed by advocates in Sask- atchewan and Alberta, but added other alternatives are under consideration "which I am not at liberty to discuss." The farm crisis has been growing for eight years, and the time for talk is spent.0 GORD WAINMAN HAS BEEN AN URBAN -BASED AGRICULTURE REPORTER FOR 12 YEARS.