An Opportunity for Canada

Like you, I scan the world's media, for ideas, comments and news. In the Reuters dispatches is an interesting story that should form an entire cabinet committee, or opposition inspiration to show the country that someone in Ottawa has vision.

It is a story entitled, 'Congress May Help Grain Exports - House Speaker' - By REUTERS filed 7:44 p.m. ET, September 23, 2005.

The lead paragraph says, 'Congress may have to examine ways to help American farmers export their wheat, corn and soybeans because Hurricane Katrina devastated the Port of New Orleans, a key shipping point, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said on Friday.'

Most Gulf ports were closed on Friday, the sixth day that grain export traffic was stalled. The shutdown sapped market prices.
With U.S. farm losses from Hurricane Katrina being estimated at roughly $2 billion and up, depending on how long farm exports from New Orleans are delayed, what could Canada do to help this situation in the long term so that North America is not held hostage to either mother nature or terrorism?

I think a party that advocated for the fast tracked upgrades to our ports that already have the grain shipping infrastructure in place, as well as rail upgrades the situation in the Mississippi and Gulf Coast could be alleviated to help all agricultural producers.

Why not allow the port of Prince Rupert, Churchill, and Thunder Bay to play a large part in the game of exporting grain to the world, for all of North America?

Hitler had plans of debilitating the American's ability to fuel and feed themselves by an attack on the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans' ports, so why not take a page from history.

I am sure an offer to help the American agricultural producers by shipping grain through our ports duty free, to their customers would show a much better light to the heartland of American than any public relations campaign could.

If we have the ability to improve or increase our oil production to help the Americans meet their needs with the shut down and destruction of the oil processing plants in the Gulf Coast region, can we do the same for helping supply the American's with wheat, and other crops to help them meet their export commitments?

Could we do the same with our poultry and livestock industries to help with the reported $1 billion losses with an additional $1 billion in lost export sales and higher fuel prices? I know for a fact we have excess dairy products sitting in warehouses across the prairies that cannot be sold due to quotas and such. Why not ship that. I am a glass of milk, brick of cheese, or a dozen eggs would go a long way right now for someone who needs a meal in Louisiana.

Canada has had the ability to ramp up productions of airplanes, ships, food stuffs, and other such things when we were called on in the first and second world war.

Isn't Mother Nature waging war right now? Can't we meet this challenge?