The Agricultural Producer's Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) held a general meeting recently as a way to connect with members and the industry on a number of topics.
That included a number of speakers, with addresses from new provincial minister Jeremy Harrison and Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck.
APAS President Bill Prybylski says that the event had a number of important issues, beginning with the province's rail lines.
"One of the topics brought up was the railroad issues, that's something that we've been dealing with for many, many years. The gist of the presentation was that you know rail freight rates, it's been suggested, are some of the lowest in the world, which perhaps they are, but there's reasons for that, it's like comparing apples and oranges."
"When we compare the figures in Canada to those and other countries particularly, you know Europe, where they have lot shorter, shorter hauls, the first and last miles are always the most expensive. So once it's on the train, it doesn't cost a whole lot to travel a further distance. That's what kind of skews those numbers. So, you know, they're really interesting presentations on how the freight rates are compared to other countries and the reasons why they are the way they are."
Keeping with foreign issues Prybylski says they also chatted about foreign ownership in Saskatchewan, coinciding with a recent report from the provincial auditor.
"We had a panel to discuss farmland ownership and there's been a lot of talk about foreign ownership recently and foreign investment in Saskatchewan farmland. So just a good discussion on where that permanent ownership sitting is sitting right now. Is there in fact foreign ownership?"
"I guess the timing of that was really good, it wasn't intentional, but it worked out to be very well. It was the same day that the auditor released her report on foreign ownership of farmland and the farmland ownership board. So that was very timely and relevant information."
The meeting also discussed some new items from other farm groups operating in the country.
"We also had a presentation from a gentleman from the Canadian Grain Commission talking about some of the things that happened at the Grain Commission. Some changes are taking place and some of these visions for what he sees going forward and the presentations from Scott Ross, the Chief executive officer from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and some of the issues that CFA is working on and how some of the stuff that APAS is working on, how it works well in tandem with the CFA. So again, very interesting and relevant topics."
Alright. Yeah, I guess what they pass going to kind of keep their eye on heading out from this general meeting.
"We're certainly gonna continue working on some of the rail issues. In particular our wish to see the rail carbon surcharge eliminated. We know that as producers, we're paying a significant amount of carbon tax on behalf of the railroads, that's worked into their freight rate and we don't feel that that's fair for producers to be paying the carbon tax on behalf of the railroad. So we're, you know, we're working to see that eliminated."
Prybylski says they'll also look to make grain fees and contracts fair for the producers in the coming year.