Rural leaders from across the Prairies told MPs last week the Canadian Wheat Board must exempt new-generation grain-based co-operatives from the rules of the pooling system.
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers and Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers told the House of Commons agriculture committee Nov. 25 that the wheat board policy on no exemptions is hurting farm income.
“If the only acceptable policy out there is an exemption, then that’s where we’ll go,” said SARM president Sinclair Harrison.
He said his organization will press the CWB board of directors to amend its policy soon.
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KAP president Don Dewar said his organization has come to the same conclusion.
“We think new-generation co-ops should be able to work outside the pool,” he said.
They were responding to questions from Reform critic Howard Hilstrom, who has been arguing for more wheat board flexibility when dealing with co-ops that propose to build grain processing plants but do not want to have to sell their grain to the board. CWB rules dictate that wheat for human consumption must be sold to the board and then bought back at a higher price, with the difference paid into a pool to be distributed among all farmers in the pool.
The board has been in a public battle with investors in Prairie Pasta who want to build a pasta plant but insist they need to bypass the CWB pooling system to feed their durum directly to the plant.
The board has insisted that such exemptions would undermine the equity of the pooling system.
The stalemate has meant the pasta plant has not been built and board critics say it is stifling income-enhancing valued-added processing.
