The Liberal architect of the rules governing the Canadian Wheat Board says the Conservative government is coming dangerously close to violating the spirit and maybe the letter of the law.
Ralph Goodale, veteran Saskatchewan MP, Liberal opposition House leader and minister responsible for the CWB when legislation was last revised in 1998, said last week the Conservatives are stretching the rules to the breaking point in their attempts to undermine the monopoly.
“I would say that the cumulative pattern of behaviour of this government violates the sprit of the law and is edging close to the letter,” he said Oct. 19.
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The Regina MP said the unilateral decision of agriculture minister Chuck Strahl to eliminate 36 percent of eligible voters from the wheat board election rolls in mid-election campaign because they did not deliver to the board during the past two years is questionable. Affected farmers can get back on the voters list by swearing a declaration that they were involved in producing one of seven grains in the past two years – wheat, barley, oats, rye, flax, canola or rapeseed.
“The number of people disqualified is so high, and coming in the context of so many other decisions of this government to undermine the legitimate processes of the board, I really think the minister should reconsider his tactic,” said Goodale. “Any ministerial decision that with the stroke of a pen disqualifies one-third of voters has to be questioned for its legitimacy.”
He said that in 1998 when changes to the wheat board act were being written to set the rules for board elections and governance, the decision was made to use the permit book list as the voters list. There were suggestions that the scale of deliveries to the board should weight the vote or that permit book holders who do not regularly deliver should be excluded.
“In the end, we decided the simplest and fairest system would be to use the permit book as the basic source of information,” said Goodale. “It is not the best reflection of production patterns. It is the best reflection of democratic principles.”
