No matter who wins the federal election, it may be difficult to change the Canadian Wheat Board’s election system in time for the next CWB vote in the fall of 2006.
The three-member review panel submitted its report to CWB minister Reg Alcock during a face-to-face meeting in Winnipeg Dec. 3. The report has not yet been made public.
Alcock said that implementing some of the panel’s recommendations would require new legislation to be passed by Parliament.
“That will create problems in terms of whether we can get this in place for the next wheat board election,” he said Dec. 5.
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The amendments will depend on a number of things, including how quickly a new government calls Parliament back into session and what kind of co-operation there will be from all sides of the House.
“If there’s a willingness to do it … it’s theoretically possible, but until we get into the guts of it, we won’t know.”
If the Conservatives form the next government, the fate of the panel’s report is even more uncertain.
David Anderson, Conservative MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands and CWB critic, said while his party has serious concerns about the existing election process, his party wouldn’t feel bound by the report’s recommendations.
At the same time, he said the election system is flawed and something needs to be done before the 2006 vote.
“If people want an election process that is credible and gets more farmers to vote, they’re going to have to make some changes,” said Anderson, who favours removal of the board’s single desk marketing powers.
Alcock said the report will be presented to the CWB and then made public so people can see it and make their own judgments.
The review panel, made up of farmers Greg Porozni, Cecilia Olver and David Rolfe, was set up in June to review the enire CWB election process.
