Members of the Senate agriculture committee retired behind closed doors this week to start figuring out how they would change the government’s Canadian Wheat Board legislation.
Committee members say amendments are guaranteed, which means the legislation will be sent back to the House of Commons for another vote.
Committee sources said late last week at least three amendments can be expected:
- A proposal to remove a clause that would allow the farm lobby to trigger a farmer vote on including or excluding grains from wheat board jurisdiction.
- A suggestion that the federal auditor-general be given the authority to assess wheat board books and performance.
- A proposal that the bill be amended to put an upper limit on the contingency fund that will be collected from farmers, perhaps $30 million.
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The senators also are debating whether to provide a commentary noting the level of farmer division and dissatisfaction with the lack of marketing choice available to wheat and barley farmers.
The committee is not expecting to report back to the Senate before the last week of May. It means the Senate will not send it back to the House before the first week of June, at the earliest. That would leave the government just two weeks to find time to bring the bill to another Commons vote, sending it back to the Senate for final consideration. The Commons adjourns for 10 weeks on or about June 19.
If the timing does not work and the legislation is not law before summer, it appears unlikely the government could meet its target of having CWB elections this fall. Board reform would be put off into next year.
“It is a tight schedule, I know, and we have no desire to hold this up,” Liberal senator Eugene Whelan said May 8.
“But I don’t intend to rush this through after all the hearings we have had out West and all the time we have spent on the study.”
It was the same message from other members of both Liberal and Progressive Conservative caucuses.
“We will be having discussions on amendments and we are getting some legal opinions,” said Conservative and committee chair Len Gustafson. “We will get it back to the Senate by the end of the month. I see no reason that would not be enough time to get it through the House.”
Liberal Nick Taylor, who sponsored the wheat board bill in the Senate, said the government has to be careful about putting too much pressure on senators to speed up the report.
“If some of those old senators think they are being guided or pushed, they just might kick up their heels and head for the horizon,” he said in an interview.
