The Conservative government is showing “a lack of respect” for prairie grain farmers whose votes for Canadian Wheat Board directors are being ignored as the government moves to end the CWB monopoly, says board chair Ken Ritter.
And the Conservatives are misunderstanding or misrepresenting the implications of the January federal election that saw the party win most rural Prairie seats while campaigning to end the monopoly.
“It certainly is true that the Conservatives won the majority of the rural vote here,” Ritter said in a July 15 interview from Saskatoon. “But many of the farmers who voted for them also voted for board directors who favour the present structure.
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“In the general election, voters made their decisions on gun control, childcare and God knows what else. The number of people voting strictly on the wheat board issue would be minuscule. But that is the question in board elections.”
Ritter, a Saskatchewan producer, said that despite its promise of consultation, contact between the CWB board and the five-month-old government has been “very superficial.”
“Obviously, there is a dilemma here,” he said. “The Conservatives ran on a platform, directors ran on a different platform. Reasonable people would recognize the differences and sit down to work them through. That has not happened.”
Instead, the government is organizing a closed-door meeting in Saskatoon July 27 that mainly includes people that want to end the CWB monopoly.
Although the CWB board has not been invited, the two board members who favour an end to the monopoly have been asked to attend.
MP David Anderson, parliamentary secretary to agriculture minister Chuck Strahl and chair of the July 27 meeting, said in an interview that one of those directors, Dwayne Anderson, has been designated by the board to deal with the new Conservative government. Ritter denied that.
“Dwayne Anderson has not been given a mandate by the board to represent us on this,” he said. “David Anderson’s statement is not accurate.”
Ritter said the Conservative argument that they campaigned to end the monopoly and they are bound by the campaign promise does not hold water.
They also campaigned to “replace” the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program but once in office, have realized it is better to improve the program rather than create something entirely new.
“They backtracked on their CAIS promise and there is no reason they could not decide now that they will act on the board only if that’s what farmers want them to do, as expressed in a vote,” said Ritter.
