Another player has been added to the open market team on the Canadian Wheat Board’s board of directors.
Glen Findlay, a former Manitoba agriculture minister and strong proponent of an open market for wheat and barley, was named to the board by CWB minister Chuck Strahl.
The appointment brings to six the number of open market proponents on the 15-member board.
Chief executive officer Adrian Measner appears about to be fired by Strahl and would likely be replaced by another open market supporter, which would push the total to seven.
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The final tally will be determined by the outcome of the CWB director elections. Five positions are up for grabs in the election, with four of the incumbents single desk supporters and one an open marketer. The results will be announced Dec. 10.
In an interview from his farm at Shoal Lake, Man., Findlay made it clear he supports the federal government’s plans to end the board’s single desk marketing authority.
“I’m very much in favour of marketing choice, while retaining a strong wheat board for those who want to use it,” he said.
He acknowledged it will be a challenge for a reformed CWB to survive and prosper in an open market environment, but expressed confidence it can be done.
“I think that both objectives can be achieved with good management.”
The 65-year-old Findlay, who farms 5,000 acres of crops and raises 250 head of beef cows, is the third open marketer appointed to the board by Strahl in the past two months, following Alberta farmer Ken Motiuk and Saskatchewan consultant Bruce Johnson.
Appointed director William Cheuk, a Vancouver businessperson, has so far survived Strahl’s purge. While not holding a strong position on the single desk questions, his view is that board should do what the government wants it to do.
Currently eight of the 10 elected farmer directors are single desk supporters.
Findlay rejected the notion that he was appointed by Strahl to be another open market vote on the board of directors.
He said his 40 years as a farmer, his educational background and his 11 years as a provincial cabinet minister make him well qualified to be a CWB director.
“I believe in choice, but I think I’m primarily there to bring good governance to the board of directors and help adopt policies for the betterment of the farmers of Western Canada.”
The new director is optimistic about the future of agriculture, in particular the grain industry, adding that the development of the biofuel industry is providing a new era of opportunity for the grain industry in Western Canada.
“I think the wheat board can play a major role in leading the industry in accessing those opportunities that are out there,” he said, adding that providing competition to the board will force it to do a better job.
Single desk supporters and the board itself say the agency won’t last long competing as a small voluntary grain marketing organization in an open market dominated by giant multinational corporations.
Findlay said he can’t explain in detail how the board will operate successfully in the open market.
“That’s my objective. Determining how it will be done will be a process involving the wheat board, the federal government and private industry.”
He also declined to say whether farmers should vote in a plebiscite on the future of wheat marketing, as they will do with barley in the new year, saying that’s a decision to be made down the road.
Findlay’s appointment met with the expected mixed reaction.
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association president Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel said Findlay, a former director of the WCWGA, will be an excellent appointment.
“His resume certainly shows that he’s qualified for the job and that he cares about the issues,” she said.
CWB director Bill Nicholson, also from Shoal Lake, said he was disappointed, but not surprised, by Strahl’s choice.
“It’s a completely partisan appointment whose primary qualification will be to implement the government’s ideology,” he said.
