FARMERS OWN ASSETS
Why would (agriculture minister) Gerry Ritz wish to rob Western Canada of income due them?
The history of the Canadian Wheat Board is short in world standards. The CWB has provided Canada’s grain farmers a system to monitor buyers and sellers to provide a fair price to western farmers.
With farmers’ co-operation, it helped level farmers’ ability to source markets. The CWB helped farmers provide a quality product by seed selection recognized here and around the world. The CWB stabilized grain markets with the world. It held railroads accountable, by movement of grain farthest inland in the world to port and placed on ship in a cost efficient manner with limited resources.
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Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Wheat sold in Canada for domestic consumption had to be Canadian grown so farmers were not price undermined.
Corporations have driven down prices even lower than the cost of production, forcing sellers to sell product at a loss. The CWB is efficiently managed with returns to farmers and spinoffs to Canada’s economy.
Ritz, being from Saskatchewan, is aware farmers own the CWB.
Can consumers and farmers work together to lower the consumer price from $5 per loaf (of bread) and increase farmers’ share, about 12 cents per loaf? Ask your member of Parliament to explain why the price of bread is so high and farmers’ share is so low.
The federal government plans to give the CWB to corporations for free. Why not give the CWB to the people of Western Canada whose farmers own the CWB assets?
Ritz proposes to give the CWB to corporate rivals who pit consumers against farmers and farmer against farmer.
Grant McFarlane,
Calgary, Alta.
STRONG AND VIABLE
Following changes to the Canadian Wheat Board Act in 2012 by the federal government, CWB has always stated its intention to build a strong and viable CWB in the open market. CWB wants to provide farmers with greater choice, increased competition resulting in better prices, secure access to new markets and customers, and the ability for farmers to pool their grain with a company that they know and trust.
Recently, there has been some speculation and inaccuracies regarding CWB’s future and our commercialization plans. We understand that CWB is in a unique position and will address some of the questions that have arisen without jeopardizing our business and putting our farmers-customers or potential investors in an unfair competitive position.
Part of our dilemma is that when the monopoly ended and CWB moved into an open market environment, CWB needed to begin to transition into the same operating conditions as that of our competition. As everyone knows, other grain companies are not required to release any confidential commercial information that would disadvantage their operations.
In accordance with the Act, CWB was tasked with providing a commercialization plan to the government by 2016 and executing on that plan by 2017.
CWB has always said it intended to beat those legislated deadlines. For the past two years, CWB has been building a network of assets and is on the path towards commercialization.
CWB’s growth strategy requires significant capital.
To that end, CWB and its professional advisers have embarked on a rigorous process of looking for a strategic partner that meets a number of criteria, including experience in grain handling, industry expertise and enough capital to continue to expand CWB’s strategic network of grain-handling assets. It is also critically important that an investor support the idea of Western Canadian farmers being provided an opportunity for ownership in CWB going forward.
CWB is currently involved in a commercial process and has engaged expert advisers to assist us. At this time it is inappropriate and, in fact, detrimental to the process to confirm or deny which companies are interested in partnering with us until we have concluded our due diligence.
However, we can say that any bids rejected to date were evaluated by CWB and our advisers using the rigorous criteria listed above. If bids were rejected it was because they did not meet the requirements.
Our objectives are to develop a strong and viable grain-handling company in Canada that can compete with the best in the business and to give farmers an opportunity to have an ownership stake. CWB is not being sold or given away. We are securing an investor to partner with farmers to ensure there is a strong and viable CWB for today and the next generation.
Dayna Spiring,
Chief Strategy Officer, CWB,
Winnipeg, Man.
