Canadian Wheat Board chair Ken Ritter sees it as the latest engagement in the battle between Ottawa and the CWB to determine who controls the board – the government or farmers.
Agriculture minister Chuck Strahl sees it as the latest manifestation of the board’s obsession with opposing Conservative policies.
At the centre of the disagreement was a decision by the CWB board of directors last week to reluctantly obey the government directive that it begin to pay the $30,000 monthly salary owing interim chief executive officer Greg Arason, while announcing that it will take the government to court over the issue.
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“The issue isn’t the CEO,” Ritter said in a Feb. 5 interview. “The process is what is under protest.”
He said the majority of the board of directors believes the Canadian Wheat Board Act gives it the authority to hire the CEO and to set the level of compensation. Instead, Strahl fired former CEO Adrian Measner in December, unilaterally appointed Arason as CEO and worked out a compensation level with him.
“This is an issue of who controls the Canadian Wheat Board,” said the Saskatchewan farmer. “I think it is important that we have a clear ruling on whose interpretation of the law is correct. That’s what courts are for.”
In Ottawa, Strahl lamented the cost of a new court case and the amount of time the board of directors spends discussing its political battles with the Conservative government.
“There’s so much opportunity for the board and for farmers right now and I just fear all that is getting lost in this partisan bickering, every single thing I say or do is wrong,” he told reporters Feb. 1.
“If I walk on water, they’ll say I can’t swim. One thing I’m sure of is it can’t be good for the organization to be obsessed with picking a fight with the government on every single thing including court cases. I just can’t imagine how that is advancing the interests of that place.”
Meanwhile, the Western Barley Growers’ Association last week joined Strahl in condemning the board decision to take the government to court on a second issue. It accused the board of “blatantly spending producer pooled monies” to pursue court challenges.
President Jeff Nielsen said in a statement issued from WBGA offices in Airdrie, Alta. that Strahl clearly has the legal authority to appoint an interim CEO and to fix the level of payment. He cited a section of the act, 3.09 (3), that Liberals say was written into the 1998 law to deal specifically with appointing the transitional CEO before the first farmer elections were held.
“The CWB must follow the laws and orders put forward to it,” Nielsen said. “If not, then those directors that continue to challenge the government must face the fact that they are breaking the law.”
Ritter said that while it is legally contentious and politically divisive, the majority of directors believe they are acting to preserve farmer control over the board that the 1998 legislation envisaged.
