The Conservative government has published regulatory changes it plans to use to remove the barley monopoly from the Canadian Wheat Board Aug. 1.
A 30 day public consultation period was launched April 21 when the government published proposed regulations in the Canada Gazette, arguing that changes to the CWB Act are not necessary to accomplish the goal. The government maintains the changes can be made by cabinet order.
“Amendments to the act are not necessary since the single desk powers of the CWB in relation to barley were created by regulation and can be removed through amendments to the regulations,” said the government document. “In addition, the alternative of proceeding by way of legislation would result in an unnecessarily long period of market uncertainty.”
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The government also concedes that removing the monopoly could mean the CWB will be unable to fulfil all its signed contracts to deliver barley.
“The CWB may not receive sufficient barley deliveries from producers who decide to continue to market their barley through the CWB after Aug. 1, 2007, to enable it to honour sales contracts which have already been signed,” said the proposed regulation. “Some companies with signed purchase contracts for whom the CWB is unable to supply the contracted barley may have to pay higher prices to obtain barley from grain companies or directly from farmers as barley prices have increased recently.”
Critics likely will challenge the assertion that legislative change is not necessary. And they will pounce on the prediction of uncertain supply and the potential for broken contracts, questioning the penalties and the impact on the board’s credibility.
Meanwhile, agriculture minister Chuck Strahl said last week the board should face up to the reality that change is coming rather than continue to fight the monopoly battle.
He said it was the message he conveyed during an April 15 meeting with CWB board members in Winnipeg.
“I made it very clear to them that we are moving ahead,” he said April 18. “I’m not trying to pussyfoot around on this. This is not open to discussion.”
He rejected arguments that the wheat board needs more time and that implementation should be delayed.
The same day in Saskatoon, CWB director and Saskatchewan farmer Ian McCreary was asking MPs on the House of Commons agriculture committee to help the board keep its monopoly because the CWB offers grain farmers the best business risk management tools.
“What is needed is a commitment from the committee that marketing agents like the CWB that re-establish some balance in the marketplace and that provide grain producers with solid price risk management options must be enabled to continue exercising the powers that really make them effective,” McCreary told the committee as it travelled through Western Canada to hear farmer views on business risk management programs.
