Feds wrest control of Prairie agency

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2011 (5484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Harper government plans to seize control of the Canadian Wheat Board from Prairie farmers — even before ending the grain-selling agency’s monopoly next year.

The Conservatives revealed Tuesday they would oust the wheat board’s 10 elected farmer directors, leaving five government appointees in charge, as soon as legislation introduced Tuesday is passed and receives royal assent.

The government said it will use its majority to push Bill C-18 through Parliament by the end of the year.

“If this passes, the CWB will cease to be a farmers’ organization,” said Allen Oberg, the Alberta farmer who chairs the wheat board.

The Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act would give Western Canada an open market for wheat for the first time since 1943.

Oberg was dismissive Tuesday about how free grain growers would in fact be if the legislation were passed.

“This is not about putting farmers in the driver’s seat — it’s about throwing us under the bus, and handing the steering wheel to huge American and European multinationals that control the world’s grain trade,” he said, adding the CWB board of directors would meet early next week to explore its legal options.

The wheat board contends it puts hundreds of millions of extra dollars in Prairie farmers’ pockets every year because of its international marketing clout and its mandate to return profits to growers. The Harper government has long argued farmers shouldn’t be forced to market their wheat and barley through a marketing board, as the law dictates.

Ottawa intends to replace the wheat board with an ill-defined grain-marketing entity through which farmers could sell their grain — or not. The federal government would continue to backstop the new, trimmed-down organization by guaranteeing loans and initial payments made to farmers. But the government offered few details on how an emasculated wheat board, with no grain-handling assets, would compete against large private grain companies.

It also set a deadline of Aug. 1, 2016 for the new federally controlled entity to come up with a suitable business plan for privatization. Otherwise, Bill C-18 empowers Ottawa to dissolve it.

Prairie farmers are divided on whether the wheat board should continue to have a monopoly over wheat and barley sales. So, too, are provincial governments. Earlier this year, the wheat board sponsored a farm plebiscite on the issue. Some 62 per cent of wheat growers and 51 per cent of barley producers voted to support the board’s marketing monopoly.

Starbuck farmer Ed Rempel said Tuesday he mainly grows crops such as soybeans, oats, canola and flax that are not under the control of the wheat board. And, unlike some farmers who are critical of the monopoly, he said he wouldn’t plant more wheat in an open market.

Rempel said the wheat board likely pays farmers a bit more for bread-making grades of wheat than they would receive in an open market, but he can live with whatever decision is ultimately made about the board.

What bothers Rempel is the chest-beating about marketing freedom and the charade of creating a voluntary marketing agency (to replace the board) that seems doomed to failure.

“The prime minister wanted to bring freedom to the Prairies. OK, then bring freedom. Let’s not muddy the waters by tying up a goat and waiting for the lion to come,” he said.

For some farmers who have been lobbying for the end of the wheat board single desk for years, and some even decades, Tuesday’s bill and its expected passage are a victory.

“If this moves ahead the way it looks like it should, I think it will be good for my farm, it will be good for my family. I see this being good for my income and my business,” said Morris grain and hog farmer Rolf Penner.

Penner said he’s concerned, though, about how much farmers’ money the wheat board directors may spend in the coming months to fight Ottawa’s legislation.

One possible legal avenue is the government’s decision not to hold a Prairie farm plebiscite before making big changes to the wheat board, as called for under existing legislation.

“We’re willing to put whatever resources are necessary to make sure farmers’ rights are upheld,” the wheat board’s Oberg said Tuesday.

Manitoba is the only Prairie province whose government supports the wheat board monopoly. Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers condemned the federal bill Tuesday, saying it was “even worse than what I thought it would be.”

Asked if Manitoba would be prepared to join in any legal action against the legislation, Struthers said: “We’re not ruling out any options at all.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Wither the Port of Churchill

IN introducing the government’s new Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz clearly knew he had to address the significant loss in business the Port of Churchill might likely experience.

Since the wheat board is responsible for about 90 per cent of its cargo, Ritz said Tuesday that Ottawa would provide short-term incentives and modest maintenance funding for the port, totalling about $30 million over five years.

Allen Oberg, chairman of the CWB, was not impressed with the sop to Churchill.

“I find it ironic that Churchill is a port that saves farmers money and puts money back in farmer hands,” Oberg said Tuesday.

“Now taxpayers’ dollars will be used to support a terminal that at the present time is paying its own way.”

OmniTRAX Canada, the company that owns the port and the Hudson Bay Railway, did not respond directly to Ottawa’s modest largesse.

“We continue to work closely with the federal and provincial governments, the CWB, the producers, grain companies, other shippers and communities in the North to ensure the viability and future of the Port of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Railway,” Brad Chase, president of OmniTRAX Canada, said in a prepared statement.

— Martin Cash

Key dates

Oct. 18: Ottawa introduces Bill C-18 to end the Canadian Wheat Board’s grain sales monopoly.

December 2011: Ottawa hopes to have the law passed. It will then seize control of the wheat board, ousting its 10 farmer-elected directors.

Aug. 1, 2012: The CWB sales monopoly would end. Farmers could market their wheat and barley any way they wish. The CWB is replaced by a new government-controlled entity through which farmers can voluntarily market their grain.

Aug. 1, 2016: Deadline for the new entity to develop a commercially viable business plan for the federal agriculture minister.

Aug. 1, 2017: The new marketing agency is either privatized or dissolved.

— source: Government of Canada