The Canadian Wheat Board’s ability to take part in the debate about its future this fall could be restricted by its own election code of conduct.
The code says the board has to avoid any activity that “detracts from a public perception of integrity and impartiality” during director elections.
With the board’s future as a single desk marketer bound to be the dominant issue in the elections, the organization will have to tread carefully in its public comments to avoid being seen as favouring single desk candidates.
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“The problem is the election turns on who we are and what we do, and so when we talk about who we are and what we do, someone always says we’re interfering with the election,” said Deanna Allen, the board’s vice-president for communications and farmer relations.
The code also states the board is free to respond in a normal manner to policy issues that arise during the election period, which runs from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, but Allen said there could still be problems.
“We could be hampered, depending on what other people do,” she said.
“If a round table on the future of the wheat board was held in October, for example, I think that would be a problem and it would hamper our ability to talk about it.”
She said the board as an organization won’t initiate any meetings with farmers or advertising campaigns supporting the single desk, will carefully monitor the contents of its publications like Grain Matters and won’t be inserting policy statements in any farmer payment cheques.
The code of conduct also prohibits the five incumbent directors not facing re-election from taking any role in the campaigns in the other five districts.
At the same time, the marketing agency says it will defend itself and its views on the single desk if it is directly attacked or criticized, and will correct any misinformation circulated by the organization’s critics.
“If things are being misrepresented, it’s in the best interests of the board that we set the record straight,” said CWB chair Ken Ritter.
If any parliamentary committees hold hearings involving the single desk issue this fall, the board will participate. Also, individual directors can talk about the issue with their constituents at any time.
Allen hopes other players in the CWB debate, like government and industry, observe their own ad hoc election code of conduct and don’t do anything to try to sway or interfere with the vote.
“If everyone is in a stand-down kind of situation, and adopts an attitude of ‘let’s watch the election play out and not interfere in any way that could be perceived as interference’, then we should be fine,” she said.
However she acknowledged that given the strong feelings on both sides of the single desk issue, it’s almost inevitable that no matter how careful the board is, someone will complain.
