The Rural Voice, 1989-11, Page 44his story has really nothing to
do with agronomics, plant physiology,
or crop production, but it does have
something to do with "farming." It's
about a shrewd man who "farms" the
system. The system he farms (the
government) is ultimately your and
my pocket.
If you or I tried a stunt like this,
they'd throw us so far back in a cell
they'd have to pipe light in.
If you were listening to the news
the second week of October, you
heard that the Edmonton Gainers Meat
plant and Peter Pocklington were in
the headlines again. In the most
bizarre government enterprise yet,
Alberta's Tory government is about
to kill pigs for the people of Alberta.
This amazing outcome — the
province's "seizing" of Gainers — is
just what owner Peter Pocklington
wanted. Gainer was just a pain in the
neck to him: poor profits, low return
on investment, and unacceptable
return on assets employed.
He didn't pay much for it in the
first place. He wanted nothing more
than to see the Alberta Tories at the
door with their hands out for the keys.
And once again, the wily Puck out-
foxed the government's largest brains.
When Pocklington's payment on
a $6 million loan came due September
30, he didn't send money or call to
explain. Same thing with the new
hog plant he had promised to build at
Picture Butte in Southern Alberta: he
drove government ministers and the
press half wild by refusing to say what
he was up to.
Peter left the government no
choice; it had to claim the collateral
held against more than $60 million in
loans and guarantees.
Pocklington is left with his profit-
making businesses — the Edmonton
Oilers, Palm Dairies, and Canbro
Foods — while the government picks
up the loser. They also get to pay out
a $30 million loan.
How the Alberta provincial gov-
ernment got involved in the first place
is an interesting story.
The story goes back to the vicious
1986 strike at the Gainers plant in Ed-
monton. Every day for what seemed
like weeks, the province was front-
page news across the country as
FARMING
THE SYSTEM
Who pays for damages while
an Alberta businessman
plays Let's Make a Deal?
Mervyn Erb is an independent
crop consultant and agronomist.
workers and police clashed on the
picket lines.
Pocklington insisted that wages
had to drop or the plant couldn't sui-
vive. The union refused to consider
cuts. Every day pressure mounted for
Premier Don Getty to act. The strike
was tearing Edmonton apart and giv-
ing Alberta a bad name.
So Getty met Pocklington to urge
him to stop the strike. Pocklington
obliged; he came up with a settlement
the workers could live with.
That much was reported. What
wasn't revealed, though, was the price
the premier paid for the deal.
He agreed that in return for the
settlement, the province, through loans
and guarantees, would help Gainers
modernize and even expand. The
deal — offered on the provision that
Gainers update its Edmonton plant and
build a new plant at Picture Butte —
was announced, after a decent interval
of course, on March 3, 1988.
They say Alberta Treasurer Dick
Johnson was stuck with putting the
deal together even though he didn't
like it. Gainers' problems were evi-
dent even then; Quebec hog produc-
ers, heavily subsidized by their gov-
erment, were underselling Alberta
pork. Wages in the Alberta packing
industry were far too high to compete.
In addition, the Edmonton plant is
one of the last pre-war, multi -deck,
multi -species plants still operating in
the West. Some say that Gainers,
much like the Burns Meats plant that
closed in Calgary in 1984, is simply
too outdated even to be modernized.
Now the Alberta taxpayers pick
up the bill and Peter Puck is laughing.
He got the gold mine and the tax-
payers got the shaft.
But this isn't the end of the story.
As the week unfolded, you could hear
pork producers from Iowa, Montana,
and the Dakotas howl. Canada was
again subsidizing its pork producers.
They're now calling for more duty on
Canadian pork.
Pocklington, having "soiled his
nest" in Alberta, is looking for new
places to plunder. He now plans to
enter a joint venture with Montana
Agricultural Producers Inc. to build a
$44 million canola crushing plant in
Butte, Montana.
Pocklington's Canbro Foods plant
in Lethbridge also crushes canola, as
well as retailing canola seed (etc.).
And having his "ear to the ground,"
Pocklington is well aware that USDA
Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter
is pushing for more domestic canola
production and less reliance on
Canadian supplies.
Pocklington's share of the
Montana plant is $20 million, but his
upfront cost is just one dollar. The
city of Butte sold him a $4.8 million
refinery site for one dollar, and the
state of Montana is giving Pocklington
a $14.5 million low-interest loan that
doesn't have to be repaid until the
refinery is making money. (Are you
thinking what I'm thinking?)
What Montana gets out of the
deal is more employment, a chance
to diversify and grow canola, and
Pocklington's expertise in canola
refining and marketing. The govern-
ment isn't complaining. They think
they've got the best of the deal.
They say there's one born every
minute.0
42 THE RURAL VOICE