Middle-of-the-road prairie farm groups want to put on ice the Estey report’s recommendation to take the Canadian Wheat Board out of the grain transportation business.
Until the new directors of the Canadian Wheat Board have a chance to do their own analysis of what the board’s role should be, the federal government should not make changes, say people with Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities and Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers.
“The board should be making the decision. The board was elected by producers,” said Rod Scarlett of Wild Rose.
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SARM president Sinclair Harrison agreed.
“To bring about a major change before we see what the farmer representatives want … would be inappropriate,” said Harrison.
Don Dewar, president of KAP, said he wants the government to be cautious in changing the role of the wheat board, since farmers believe their elected representatives are the right people to make decisions.
Dewar said the Estey report appears to offer a comprehensive solution to the problems of the prairie grain industry. He said KAP delegates will soon debate whether they agree with Estey’s viewpoint, and whether the organization will support his blueprint for a revamped prairie grain transportation system.
But Dewar said it is clear to him that Estey’s solution will work only if most of it is imposed. Using some parts but discarding others would probably backfire, he said.
Because of this, the government should move slowly and think carefully before making any of the changes, Dewar said.
Harrison, on the other hand, thinks some of the report’s recommendations could be quickly adopted with little harm to the grain industry. He thinks the government could spend more money on rural roads and impose joint running rights on the railways without causing major disruptions.
It’s only on major issues, such as eliminating the rail rate cap and taking the CWB out of grain transportation, that the government should hold back, Harrison said.
KAP, SARM and Wild Rose all said they liked many elements of the Estey report, but are concerned about the implications of eliminating the maximum rate cap and changing the wheat board’s role.
These groups’ mixed reviews of the report were not shared by farm groups of the left and right, which are polarized.
Terry Boehm of the National Farmers Union said the report should be ignored: “I’m hoping it will be relegated to gathering dust.”
The NFU doesn’t like Estey’s support of deregulation in grain transportation, or his agreement with many of CP Rail’s arguments made in its submission to the review.
Boehm said giving grain companies and railways more control over grain transportation, and minimizing the wheat board’s role, will increase problems.
Report applauded
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association believes the opposite.
Making wheat board grain transportation more like unregulated commercial commodities will improve the system, it says, by as much as $200 million per year.
“We don’t see much downside to this report,” said WCWGA president Larry Maguire.
Maguire said Estey has laid out how a commercial system would operate, and has created a blueprint for the government to follow.
But he said he wants to see all the recommendations implemented.
“I think you have to use the whole package,” said Maguire.
The Western Barley Growers Association also embraced report, calling for its complete implementation.
