OTTAWA (Staff) – Grain companies and dealers should be able to operate without a licence so long as it’s public knowledge, a Reform MP has proposed.
Leon Benoit (Vegreville) said in a deregulated grain-handling system, farmers should have the right to choose between a dealer licensed and bonded by the Canadian Grain Commission or an unlicensed operation that wants to avoid the costs of posting a bond with the commission.
If it was unlicensed, there would be a higher risk for farmer customers and no protection from the Grain Commission, he told the Commons agriculture committee Nov. 22.
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However, some of those unlicensed companies might be able to band together to offer farmers privately funded protection.
“This would give farmers some choice and I think it would accommodate the special crops people as well,” he said during committee study of amendments to the Canada Grain Act.
Some smaller operators, including special crops dealers, have said that the thousands of dollars needed to be bonded under the Canada Grain Commission system could drive them out of business.
Benoit said the answer is to give them an option, as long as the dealers’ unlicensed status is well publicized and posted in the elevator.
He said he will propose an amendment to the legislation that would allow creation of this two-tier system.
Liberals disapprove
His idea received no support from the Liberal majority on the committee. They will vote the idea down when Benoit proposes it in the Commons as the bill is being debated for a final time this week or next.
Lyle Vanclief, parliamentary secretary to agriculture minister Ralph Goodale, said farmers have a right to expect a uniform licensing requirement so there is no confusion about their rights if the grain dealer goes bankrupt.
Under existing rules, licensed dealers post a bond and farmers with grain caught in the middle of a bankruptcy will be covered to the value of the bond.
Vanclief repeated an earlier promise that the government is working with the special crops industry to develop separate legislation to govern their sector.
In the meantime, talks are under way to develop a system that will tie the cost of bonding to the size of the enterprise, he said. It would mean that smaller operators would have to post a smaller bond.
