Ethanol Industry To Get $78 Million

With the 'coming' energy crisis, <a href='http://www.abc.net.au/tropic/stories/s1047079.htm'>Ethanol</a> may be used to power our homes one day. Sweeeeet!<p> <p>---<br>"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme" Mark Twain <br />"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato

I think this could be very good for Canada, good for farmers and for alternative fuel sources!

I\'ve never heard such positive news about ethanol. Could it be hype?

Proves it is a joke that we\'re letting urban sprawl gobble up our country side, though.

I am fed up with subsidizing business for any reason. I think it\'s a myth that the citizens benefit from this kind of tax giveaway. If there\'s money to be made business will be the first ones setting up shop wether we help them or not. If there\'s no money to be made how many more tax dollars are going to be thrown into a losing cause.

If a business comes into Canada to make money from our resources then you hire Canadians, you manufacure in Canada and you damn well pay your share of taxes. WE DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE OUR RESOURCES OR JOBS AWAY AND WE DEFINATELY DO NOT NEED TO SUBSIDIZE BUSINESS. If Canada was some resource poor nation then I can see trying to lure business here with tax cuts, but WE ARE NOT RESOURCE POOR. Why do we keep thinking we can\'t say go somewhere else if you don\'t like paying taxes here? We have what it takes to have business in Canada. What we don\'t need are politicians giving us away as though we\'re not worth anything. THIS SUBJECT MAKES ME FURIOUS!

Maybe we have to not grow for a few years (and that may not be such a bad thing), but the world will be knocking on Canada\'s door for a very long time for what should be considered the PRIVILEDGE of doing business in Canada.

Why did government start susidizing farmers in the first place? The government has turned the farmers into welfare cases and now how long are we expected to keep them off the streets? We need to fix whatever is wrong with farming that necessitates subsidies. Maybe this is a case for that simultanious policy action?

Actually the biggest reason that Canadian farmers require subsidies is because of the much higher subsidies paid in the US and EU. Those have pushed international prices down to nothing.

I question why the government isn\'t taking this opportunity to encourage farmers to expand into growing hemp. The ethanol can still be produced, cheap livestock feed and fertilizer would still be natural byproducts, and we would have a more diverse economy. It would seem a natural way to get a new industry off the ground.

This is a positive thing for the environment though, at least as long as we don\'t just stop at ethanol production.

I don\'t like gov handouts because they never seem to make it to the person who needs it...but I do beleive that investing and encouraging this industry is a good idea. It makes more sense to me then the way they just handed money out after the BSE situation, it hasn\'t really helped farmers, so many are on the brink of losing everything and when the banks call in their loans, who is going to buy the land...corporations? I think our gov should be investing in alternative fuels asap, I think their should be incentives for automakers to create vehicles in Canada that are \'hybrids\' which have zero emissions and use very little gas. The number of vehicles I see in car lots is outrageous, who is buying all of these new vehicles every year. We are talking millions if not billions of dollars sitting on car lots year after new year and they are all gas guzzlers. What will happen to these vehicles when there is no gas, or it\'s too expensive to use? Why are cities not being encouraged to convert to these hybrids now, it would reduce emissions and save gas?

I think the development of ethanol is a good thing. But big companies like Husky and Suncor don`t need any funding. They`re rich enough to do it themselves!!! I say fund the farmers, who are hurting, becauser they have to compete against large corporate farms, and make sure that the small family farm actually gets the funding! By the way, why is it OK to subsidize a large corporation? I thought it went against the provisions of NAFTA. Won`t other companies sue the government for lost profits due to these \'unfair\' subsidies?

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Dave Ruston

whelan costan, I agree about new energy sources being needed and like you where I think the government needs to become involved is not with subsidies but with moves that make it impossible for business to keep doing business as usual and for you and I to be excited about riding our bikes on the paths provided for us in our cities. Europe is so far ahead of us on these issues. You\'d think we lived on a different planet than they do. Why can\'t we utilize their experiences instead of making the same mistakes they\'ve made, mistakes they cannot reverse. They kicked these huge hog farms out and we welcomed them with open arms.(and subsidizes I expect).

The environment is not negotiable as far as I\'m concerned. But,which farmers are expected to get subsidies? The huge irresponsible gmo growers that will likely loose their markets because given the choice most people would not choose gmo foods? Or are they farmers that have borrowed themselves into mega farms so they have mega bills? When the government gets involved in our food production (like they did with GMOs) we give Monsanto research money and subsidized farmers and when we discover we gave money to the wrong kind of research we pay again to save the business that was using us to further their bottom lines. Get the government out of effin private business. Get effin private business out of government. If there\'s a problem with farming in Canada that requires us to keep giving the farmers subsidies then fix THAT problem.

Organic farming is doing very well in Canada but I have to admit that I don\'t know if they are being subsidized.

I read the whole threat and was disappointed that not one person raised the question of ethics, that is to use food to power cars.<br> We need alternative fuels but not anything will do.<br> To name another example,would you be in favour of plastering the landscape with nuclear reactors to power electric cars?

I just posted the preceding but didn\'t intend to do so anonymously.
I guess I was not logged in even though the settings say to keep this for one day.

Go figure

Ethanol production is extremely expensive and causes more harm to air, water and land than if it had never been proposed or tried at all. You have massive amounts of energy input in order to grow the crops and then run what is basically a distillery in order to produce the alcohol from which Ethanol is made. Millions of dollars in farm subsidies in North America has proved this again and again. It is blatant vote buying.