HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgriculture 2002, 2002-03-13, Page 18Stallsitie
Manlier .
J):*1 Perrtit
Enjoy the
Con es
With a good book
DATurnbur
inthellam
Dr David Perrin
DON'T TURN YOUR
BACK IN THE BARN
Veterinarian Dave
Perrin recalls his
unforgettable first year
as a vet in rural British
Columbia. $23.95
Looking after the financial
needs of our area farming
community for fifty years
Cc?
OPERATING LOANS
MEMBER INSURANCE
.---"----(41'SA ACCOUNTS
Clinton Community
Credit Uni
48 Ontario Street
CLINTON 482-3466
118 Main Street North
EXETER 235-0640
WEBSITE: www.clintoncu.on.ca
WINGHAM SALES ARENA
DISCOUNT PRICES ON NEW & USED
FURNITURE - BOX & MATTRESSES
Fantastic Savings on Quality New Box & Mattresses - Single, 3/4,
Double & Queen Sizes. Various types & styles, from the economy sets
to the top-of-the-line 30 yr. Pillow-top sets.
If you're not having a good sleep - COME IN AND SEE US!
LET'S MAKE A DEAL!
Also a good selection of clean used box & mattresses at low prices.
ALSO AVAILABLE: Bedroom suites, bunk beds, futons,
table & chair sets, sofa beds, living room suites, curio cabinets, wardrobes,
chests, coffee & end tables.
WINGHAM WORKWEAR:
Safety footwear & work clothing for
factory workers, farmers, welders, shop
workers. The area's best prices & selection.
Sizes 1-16
- Need a New Pair of Boots? COME SEE US AT
WINGHAM SALES ARENA
357-2987 Just north of Wingham on Hwy. #4
Open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m .
PAGE A-18. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2002.
Agriculture 2002
Guest column
Ethics, agriculture, govt. What went wrong?
4
.By Stephen
Thompson
Many readers
will recognize
me as the per-
son who, over
the past three
years, has writ-
ten seemingly
endless, and
often caustic,'
letters to . the
editor, com-
plaining about various aspects of the
Ontario Whole Farm Relief Program
(OWFRP), and AIDA, its federal
counterpart.
When I first noticed, and com-
plained about, the horrifying basic,
and horrifying huge, opening inven-
tory valuation problem, in January of
1999, I honestly expected the prob-
lem to be quietly, and quickly.
resolved. Never, in my wildest
dreams did I expect both senior lev-
els of government to act so com-
pletely stupidly, even to the point
where the deputy minister of
OMAFRA once claimed to have, yet
was never able to produce, — "very
supportive Ministry accountants".
Yet, it wasn't always this way.
Thirty years, ago, I was proud to
work for the Farm Credit
Corporation, and even worked for a
while in Essex County, when the
local MP was Eugene Whelan, the
then federal minister of agriculture.
The people I worl$ed with at FCC
were some of the most honest, and
decent people I have ever met. If a
mistake was made, it was fixed —
saving face was not an option if it
interfered with the welfare of our
clients and applicants. The very exis-
tence of an OWFRP style design
problem would have been unthink-
able enough at FCC 30 years ago,
but to try to deny it in the way the
OWFRP and AIDA problems have
been today, would have completely
destroyed the whole organization.
What happened between then, and
now? It would seem, particularly at
OMAFRA, and to a lesser extent at
AAFC (Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada), that serving the farm client
is only a window dressing to the real
goal of serving the political masters.
In retrospect, could see it happen-
ing 15 years ago at OMAFRA, when
a particularly stupid rule of a former
interest rate assistance program stip-
ulated that if a couple was married
on Dec. 31, both spouses' incomes
for the entire year would be included
when calculating program benefits.
My wife and I had married on Dec.
20, and we maintained that only her
income from then to the end of the
year, should be included.
I fought for 10 months, going to
increasingly higher levels of bureau-
cracy, all to no avail. Finally, a hand-
delivered note to then Ag. Minister
Jack Riddell's chief of staff, one
Sunday afternoon, produced profuse
apologies on Tuesday morning, from
the same- high-level OMAFRA
staffer who had turned me down flat,
less than a week earlier.
Thankfully I had the "Jack" ham-
rher, but it never should have come
to that, if the sense of decency, and
honesty prevalent at FCC, had been
equally prevalent at OMAFRA.
During the next 10 years, I didn't
have a whole lot to do with
OMAFRA. Nonetheless, the intro-
duction of the OWFRP program in
early 1999, completely slammed my
memories of a "golden age of reason
and sensibility" at FCC, up against
the harbour wall of 1999 OMAFRA
nonsense, and total lack of reason.
Partly because my own farm had a
lot riding on this program, and partly
because of my largely farm clientele,
I was one of the first to review the
OWFRP program.
I was shocked — it looked like the
program 'had been designed after a
night at the pub, or by a kindergarten
class. The opening inventory valua-
tion flaw was so basic, and so obvi-
ous, that a similar mistake on a high
school - accounting test, would cause
an- automatic failure.
I wrote to our local OMAFRA
farm management specialist, point-
ing out the problem, and offered to
meet- with him and/or his people —
nothing happened. I then wrote to
the appropriate assistant deputy min-
ister, as a professional courtesy, to
allow him the chance to fix the prob-
lem quietly, before the Minister got
lambasted in the Legislature.-The
ADM, to my complete horror, actu-
ally tried to defend the accotffiting
travesty. This was especially shock-
ing since he had a Masters degree in
Ag. Economics from the University
of Guelph, and should have known
better.
- Things were not going well, and
even though I had never needed to
do so before, I gathered up my facts,
and presented them in a Letter to the
Editor (the first of many) in an
Ontario farm weekly paper.
Incredibly, nothing happened —
OMAFRA got seemingly even stu-
pider. They published a pamphlet
outlining their "reasons" for their
accounting methodology — all it did
DR. DAVE'S
STALLSIDE MANNER
Dr. David Perrin follows up
his successful Never Turn
Your Back in the Barn with
another collection of
stories on topids from
neurotic telephone talking
dogs to a hilarious triste
between a star crossed
mare and a wayward
stallion. $23.95
523-4792
was produce nausea for any reader
with even the most basic grasp of
accounting. As I had done years ear-
lier with the interest rate assistance
program, I wrote to people continu-
ally higher on the ladder. That's
when I got a letter from OMAFRA's
deputy minister claiming to have
"very supportive ministry account-
ants" for the issues I continued to
raise. When I demanded to meet
these accountants, or at least know
who they were, so I could report
them to their respective Ethics
Committees, he conveniently devel-
oped "amnesia" and has stayed that
way, ever since.
To back up a bit, this accounting
flaw required opening inventories io
be valued at closing values. In the
1998 -OWFRP and AIDA, this flaw
horribly adversely affected unincor-
porated hog farmers and cash crop
farmers (and others) who, because
they are incorporated, must have a
calendar based fiscal year. The hog
farmers were penalized because
December 1998 was a spike low in
prices, and cash crop farmers were
unfairly penalized if they carried
inventory into 1998.
Hog and grains farmers who, if
they were incorporated, and there-
fore had the choice of a non-calendar
year end (say June 30) were far bet-
ter off because hog prices had
rebounded somewhat, and because
by June 30, most grains farmers have
-sold the previous year's crop. The
bottom line is that the extremely stu-
pid opening inventory valuation
policies caused identical farms to
receive vastly different sums -of aid
Continued on A-19
NEVER SELL YOUR HEN
ON A RAINY DAY
Some of those old weather sayings really do
make sense. This book explains why. $8.95
Brussels
887-9114
THE BEST OF PLAYBOAR
Give a pork farmer a chuckle
with Thomas Hagey's parody of
that famous magazine. $9.95
COWSMOPOLITAN
Cattle producers will get a
chuckle -from this parody on
a dairy theme. Even the ads
are hilarious. $9.95
WA WA ei; ks-enY4 ,ATed xNT WA Nedx\VANWA WAWA:NIA NTedWee. WA WA We, /
4
4
efieck oat th.eae and ethe4 g4eat Aaalks at...
Blyth The Citizen